JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – One man is dead and two officers are now on administrative leave pending an investigation into an officer-involved shooting that took place Sunday on the west side. Police said it began as a domestic violence incident between a man and his wife.
Police were called to the home on Old Plank Road near West Beaver just before noon. At one point, police believed there was an active meth lab at the home, but they've confirmed that wasn't the case.
Police said the suspect had abused his wife, who then ran for help to a nearby church. The pastor of the west Shores Baptist Church was able to console that woman, but he said she was terrified, saying her husband had threatened to kill her.
"She was shaking, crying so bad," Pastor Ronald E. Reid said. "He threatened to kill her. She was sobbing so much, I just tried to calm her down. That was all I could do."
Reid recognized the woman as someone who lived in the neighborhood on Old Plank Road. After police arrived on scene, they blocked off the road and set up a perimeter around the home.
A resident in the area was in the church when the shooting happened.
"A member, he came up and told us that there was this issue going on outside, that we couldn't go outside," David Jackson said. "We stayed inside for a while. When we did go outside, we seen all the cops out there. That man's wife was sitting outside. I heard that he had tried to kill her."
Police said the man fired at an officer in the back of the trailer, barely missing his head. From there, he walked to the front and confronted those officers.
"The suspect came from inside the trailer, stepped out on his front porch, and had a phone in one hand and a rifle in the other," said Jacksonville Sheriff's Office Chief Tom Hackney. "The one officer saw that he had a rifle in his hand, it was beginning to be raised."
The officer fired and missed the man.
"The suspect pointed out to that officer that he missed," Hackney said. "He used some expletives toward that officer, told them that he had missed, continued to raise that rifle and point it at the other officers who were out there."
Two officers then fired at the man, hitting him once in the torso. He died at the scene. Police aren't releasing the suspect's name, but
Reid told News4Jax the man had always been a problem in the neighborhood, saying the man was known to shoot his firearm in the backyard and had produced meth in the past.
"(He's) never been very stable as far as I know, and other people that know him," Reid said. "We have a friend who is a cousin to him. He says, 'I hate to put it this way, but the boy is just no good.'"
Police have not yet released the man's name, but Hackney said if he's right, this man is known to a have a criminal background.
Police have not said if anyone else was in the home at the time of the incident, but they confirmed the couple has children.
The pastor said they are young children and that they had been staying with a relative.
Police are scheduled to hold a news conference Monday at 1 p.m. to give updates on the investigation.