JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The 31-year-old man shot in the ankle after running from officers watching a stolen vehicle outside a Baymeadows Road hotel early Wednesday morning has been identified Dwayne Wimberly, according to the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office.
Wimberly was shot after a short pursuit from the La Quinta Inn on Dix Ellis Trail into the woods next to Interstate 95. According to police, he was carrying a black handgun as he ran.
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Police said Wimberly, a convicted felon under investigation in connection with other violent crimes, jumped a fence to run toward I-95 when Officer Jason Lederman caught up with him. JSO said that when Wimberly refused orders to surrender and began reaching for his waistband, the officer fired three shots, hitting Wimberly once. He was hospitalized, but was expected to make a complete recovery.
Leaderman, a 19-year veteran of the JSO, was not injured.
The handgun recovered from the scene was reported stolen in 2014.
Wimberly was treated for his injury, then booked into the Duval County jail late Wednesday afternoon on a charge of possession of a firearm by convicted felon and fraudulent use of credit cards -- for using cards taken from the victim of the carjacking. He has not yet been charged with stealing the car since that case is still under investigation.
The woman with Wimberly at the hotel was questioned, but there was no information about whether she would face any charges.
Police said officers were first alerted by a tip that the car, stolen at gunpoint in Northwest Jacksonville on Sunday, was at the hotel about 3 a.m. When Wimberly and the woman came out, they were approached. The woman stayed by the car, but Wimberly ran.
Because Wimberly was apprehended near I-95, the southbound ramp from Baymeadows to the highway was closed for several hours while evidence was collected.
According to the JSO, Wimberly has been arrested at least six times in the past on charges ranging from forgery to fraud to resisting an officer without violence.
Officer Lederman was one of five officers involved in a 2010 shooting of a bank robbery suspect on Baymeadows Road in which 42 shots were fired. The suspect was killed, and a woman and her 2-year-old son who were in a restaurant drive-through at the time were injured.
The investigation found that Lederman had acted within guidelines, but two of the other officers involved -- both rookies -- resigned before they could be fired.
Wednesday's shooting was the fifth police-involved shooting since the beginning of the year, all five of them within the past six weeks.
"It speaks to the nature of how dangerous the job is that the officers do, and how in just really a second, things can changed drastically," JSO Chief Mike Bruno said. "They know they are working and dealing with and attempting to apprehend a violent felon. They know his criminal history. They know the additional charges that we're working toward securing as well as the charge of carjacking, so it speaks heavily toward the dangers that the officers face on a daily basis."