Man in Nov. 5 police shooting dies, becomes seventh fatal by Jacksonville officers this year

Scott Butler, Florida Times-Union
·2 min read
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Police cordon off the Scottish Inn on Philips Highway where officers shot a suspect who would later die.
Police cordon off the Scottish Inn on Philips Highway where officers shot a suspect who would later die.

The man shot by three sheriff's officers during a confrontation at a Scottish Inn on Nov. 5 has died, according to the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office.

Javon Tyrone Jones, 37, had initially been hospitalized in critical condition. His family said on a GoFundMe post he never woke up from surgery and had been on a ventilator four days because he was an organ donor.

It began with a 911 call about 3:15 a.m. to the 2300 Philips Highway motel where someone had been reported shot. Officers were unable to find a victim but would later witness a man shoot at a vehicle pulling into the parking lot, Chief Brian Kee said at the time.

The three officers ordered Jones to drop the weapon and shot him when he did not, Kee said. His family said he was struck six times, including twice in the head.

The two people in the vehicle were not hit by any of the gunfire. It was unclear what prompted them to be shot at or the initial 911 call, but the Sheriff's Office later said a 23-year-old man was found dead inside a room with what appeared to be at least one gunshot wound.

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Recent police shootings

Jones was the ninth person shot by Jacksonville police this year and seventh who died, according to Times-Union records. All of last year officers shot six people with three killed.

The Nov. 5 police shooting also was the second in three days in Jacksonville. On Nov. 2, Sheriff's Office narcotics detectives shot and killed a man suspected in a fentanyl-overdose death.

Undercover detectives doing surveillance on 50-year-old Matthew Orlando Dilworth tried to pull his van over, but he got out and ran. They ordered him to stop, but he pulled out a handgun and fired at two detectives who then returned fire. Kee said no one was hit at that time, and the gunman took off and was jumping fences until he tried to hide in a wooded area off Broadway and Edgewood avenues.

About 10 minutes later he encountered two more detectives and opened fire on them. They shot back, and this time struck him in a front yard. No officers were harmed.

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Shot by police November 5 in Jacksonville, man dies days later