JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A man, who still has a bullet lodged in his chest, continues to recover Wednesday after he was shot during a carjacking that led to a police chase on Jacksonville's Westside earlier this week.
Derek Auguste said he was giving a ride to a person he knew in his new Mercedes Monday morning when they picked up another man who Auguste did not know.
Christopher Ryan Davis, the man who Auguste picked up, then shot him and took off with his 2006 Mercedes, according to the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office.
"It was, and still is, very depressing. I just got the car like five weeks ago, made one car payment on it," Auguste said.
Auguste said he believes it was a setup.
"I was shot from the back passenger door and shot at close range, like, with a .22 or .38," Auguste said. "It was at close range, that's why I think a .22."
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Officers said they responded about 10:15 a.m. to the area of Goldilocks Lane and Lane Avenue after Auguste escaped the ordeal and called police.
Police broadcast a Be On the Lookout alert for the stolen vehicle, which was spotted near the intersection of Lane Avenue and Normandy Boulevard by Officer Clifford Sames, JSO spokesperson Office Melissa Bujeda said.
Sames followed the vehicle and called for backup, Bujeda said. When the other officers were in place, they activated their lights and Davis sped away and tried to evade them, Bujeda said.
Near the intersection of Beaver Street and Melson Avenue, Sames used the PIT maneuver that sent the stolen Mercedes airborne over a fence surrounding a retention pond. The car scraped the top of the fence and landed in the pond, police said.
Gil Smith, News4Jax crime and safety analyst, said the maneuver was likely necessary.
"It's a way to disable a car that's committing some kind of felony. This person had just shot someone and then stole the car. This person needed to be stopped because he could go off and kill someone or hurt someone else with the car," Smith said. "So using the PIT maneuver shuts the car down and disables the car."
Auguste has spent more than a day at Orange Park Medical Center, where he said doctors told him it would be better to keep the bullet inside him.
"I was sitting alone with a bullet in my chest not knowing what was going on. That was a yellow flag for me, just sitting there with a bullet and not knowing what kind of condition, how serious it was," Auguste said. "I was upset, but at the same time, I was in shock at the situation."
Davis, 25, has been charged with carjacking and driving without a valid license, according to police. He and Sames were not hurt in the crash.