JSO: Police shoot, wound armed man wearing body armor during a shootout early Saturday
A man was hospitalized in critical condition after being shot by Jacksonville police when a predawn traffic stop erupted in gunfire in a Northwest neighborhood Saturday.
No officers were injured in the shootout at Lem Turner Road and Dunn Avenue. The wounded suspect was taken to the hospital, Chief T.K. Waters of the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office told reporters during a briefing near the scene.
The case is the first shooting this year involving the Sheriff's Office. The agency lists seven officer-involved shootings last year on its transparency website.
Waters didn't identify either the suspect or officers involved in the shooting that happened about 1 a.m. in the parking lot of the Big Chief Tire Co. center.
Police had pulled over a white, four-door sedan containing five people for a red light violation right before the shooting. Officers also smelled an odor of suspected marijuana after approaching the car, he said.
The driver was cooperative. As officers tried to speak with the others in the car, Waters said the suspect who was in the front passenger seat told them, "I don't speak to police." Police said the man also refused to get out of the car, reported First Coast News, the Times-Union news partner.
Officers noticed the suspect was wearing a bullet-resistant and told him to get out of the car. When they pulled him from the car, police said they saw the man had a handgun with an extended magazine, according to First Coast News.
The man broke free and started running when police tried to handcuff him, police said. Officers and the suspect fired multiple bullets at each other during the foot chase and the man was wounded, according to police and reported by First Coast News.
The Sheriff's Office also said three passengers who had been in the back seat attempted to flee and that one of them remained at large.
Dunn Avenue and Lem Turner Road remained closed as of mid-morning while investigators searched for evidence and canvassed the area for possible witnesses and potential security camera surveillance video.
Sheriff's Office protocol calls for officers involved in shootings to be placed on paid administrative leave during the investigation. The State Attorney's Office also conducts a separate investigation.
Read the full First Coast News story.
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: JSO: Jacksonville police shoot armed man in body armor early Saturday
