Ax-wielding intruder shot by school police had just been cleared from Mental Health Court
A man armed with an ax who was shot by Duval County Public Schools police after trying to get inside a school had just completed mental health treatment and been released from probation, court records show.
Schools Police Chief Greg Burton confirmed the critically wounded man is 37-year-old Eric David Hurley, according to Times-Union news partner First Coast News.
The situation began about 2:40 p.m. Friday at Ruth N. Upson Elementary School in Murray Hill when he was spotted with a large ax and unable to get into at least two locked school doors. The campus was placed on lockdown, and the man left but was soon located by school police outside a nearby church, Burton said.
The suspect refused to drop the ax and came toward one of the officers and was shot, the chief said.
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It wasn't known immediately why he went to the school or his intent, and Burton couldn't confirm some reports that he swung the ax at parents and chased some in the parking lot arriving to pick up their children.
Hospitalized, Hurley was absentee-booked on charges of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon without intent to kill, trespassing on school property with a weapon and aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer, according to jail records.
Probation had just been terminated
Three days earlier Hurley completed Duval County Mental Health Court. A judge then terminated his probation for a 2018 felony auto theft case where police said they recovered "a small hatchet," court records show.
Hurley's Ingleside Avenue address — as listed by the Florida Department of Corrections — is roughly two blocks away from the elementary school.
In his 2018 theft of a vehicle from a car dealership, the arrest report said officers found a hatchet inside a backpack in the stolen Nissan that was recovered outside a Brunswick, Ga., motel.
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He had approached an employee on the dealership lot after the business was closed and said needed a car and had a gun, according to the arrest report. When the employee went to get him a key, Hurley stole the Nissan.
Following a court-ordered psychological evaluation, a judge ruled he was incompetent for trial and committed him to a state hospital. Hurley underwent a series of Mental Health Court reviews, according to court records.
The results were not available, but after being found competent Hurley pleaded guilty to grand theft auto on Sept. 28, 2020. He was placed on five years of supervised release, according to court records.
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Ax-wielding man at Jacksonville school identified as Eric Hurley
