JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A 22-year-old robbery suspect shot by an off-duty Jacksonville police officer at a Family Dollar store on the Northside was released from a hospital Sunday and booked into jail.
Edward Littleton is being held without bail. Frederick Jennings, 17, his co-defendant, is being held in the Duval Regional Juvenile Detention Center on robbery charges.
Police said a delivery truck driver was unloading supplies at the rear door of the Family Dollar on Norwood Avenue at about 5 a.m. Sunday and saw two suspects enter the rear door with masks and a long rifle-type weapon.
According to police, the suspects took money from the Family Dollar cash office and made the employees lie on the floor. The delivery truck driver ran across the street and found an off-duty officer, who was working at a nearby Walgreens store. The officer, identified as G.W. Germann, then confronted the two suspected robbers.
Police said Littleton was shot and taken to Shands Jacksonville Medical Center with non-life-threatening injuries. Jennings was arrested at the scene.
Police said Germann shot the suspect in the shoulder because he was carrying an AK-47 assault rifle.
Police said Jennings was armed with a loaded revolver.
Police said there have been a series of eight robberies at Family Dollar stores in Jacksonville in the last three months, but they don't believe the suspects in the latest robbery are responsible for the others.
"In looking at these suspects, the way they were dressed, how they were armed and the time that they struck, it was not like any of the other seven that we've seen," said Asst. Chief Chris Butler, of the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office. "Both suspects confessed to this robbery and no other robberies."
Germann was placed on administrative leave, as is standard procedure in police-involved shootings. He's expected to be back on duty later this week.