St. Johns County sheriff's deputies kill armed burglary suspect at crowded Nocatee park

A man who the St. Johns County Sheriff's Office identified as an armed burglary suspect died after being shot by sheriff's deputies Saturday morning at a popular Nocatee park amid multiple youth sporting events.

The Sheriff's Office identified him as Dustin Alan Rush, who had turned 42 on Saturday.

Rush died after being airlifted to a Clay County trauma center following the shooting at about 8:37 a.m. at Davis Park near Ponte Vedra High School, the Sheriff's Office said in an update Saturday evening on social media.

Sheriff Robert Hardwick told reporters that the suspect — subsequently identified as Rush — was armed with a handgun and had been running toward a field where children were playing soccer when gunfire erupted during a confrontation with deputies.

The gunfire that sent children, parents, spectators and athletic officials running for safety happened, Hardwick said, at the end of a pursuit by sheriff's deputies following a burglary about three hours earlier at a storage unit facility.

No injuries were reported to children or spectators at the park, nor at the neighboring high school where students were participating in a variety of activities, Hardwick said.

Hardwick said the incident began about 5:42 a.m. when St. Johns County sheriff's deputies responded to a burglary in progress at a storage unit facility off Palm Valley Road roughly five miles from Davis Park.

The Sheriff's Office said that deputies took a 37-year-old woman whom they identified as Crystal Lynn O'Neal into custody after finding her with burglary tools at the storage facility.

Accused of a total of 16 charges ranging from possession of burglary tools to burglary, larceny and damage to property/criminal mischief, O'Neal was being held without bail Saturday night at the St. Johns County Jail, inmate records showed.

After arresting her, deputies began searching for a second suspect who had fled in a vehicle before they arrived at the storage facility. Hardwick said that vehicle was the pickup truck Rush drove in the pursuit that ultimately ended at the park.

Pursuit leads to park

Later in the morning, Deputy T. Parker found the pickup truck parked beneath the Palm Valley Bridge and made contact with the suspect.

"The suspect was uncooperative and a struggle between Deputy Parker and the suspect took place," the Sheriff's Office said in the update.

Hardwick said Parker, who sustained some lacerations, "radioed for immediate assistance" and the truck sped away.

Hardwick said the truck fled, followed by deputies, down the road leading to Davis Park and Ponte Vedra High School. At that point, the lead deputy used her patrol car in a PIT maneuver that caused the pickup driver to lose control.

He said the truck spun around after being hit by the patrol car. It went through a small shallow retention pond and then crashed into a ditch.

The driver — Rush — had a handgun as he abandoned the truck and began running toward the park's soccer field where a large number of kids were playing and spectators were gathered, Hardwick said.

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Deputies ran after him. He refused to obey deputies' commands to stop and surrender, Hardwick said.

"The suspect is running through the parking lot with a firearm … He takes basically a defensive posture between two vehicles at the end of the parking lot. …. And deputies engaged the suspect," Hardwick said.

Multiple gunshots were fired. It was unclear, Hardwick said whether the suspect fired any shots.

Hardwick said deputies arriving as backup saw children lying prone on the soccer field.

"We had thousands and thousands of kids in the Davis Park area. Kids at Ponte Vedra High School taking exams, practicing sports, when this incident was going on in broad daylight,” he said.

'Chaos, everyone was running'

Jedrick Vitell was refereeing a soccer game when the shooting occurred, reported Times-Union news partner First Coast News.

"We were at the backfield, we thought it was the cross-country race gun but then we realized that it wasn’t. It was like a machine gun, where you just heard it over and over again," Vitell told First Coast News.

Vitell said he evacuated his field and then ran over to the other fields to help get others to safety.

“I was blowing my whistle as hard as I can and I’m trying to wave them all to the field house or as far away as possible. We just evacuated, chaos, everyone was running to the field house. And we were locked down for a while,” Vitell told First Coast News.

Hardwick said there were a "very large amount of children playing" as well as the parents and other spectators present when the gunfire erupted.

“We had a reckless suspect with no caution at all for life. People in the parking lot walking around. And our deputy sheriffs took the actions they had to stop from having further injury and innocent people being killed,” Hardwick said.

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Hardwick also said "This is an example of one of those cases where all of the training comes together and where our deputies without hesitation, placed themselves in harm's way for the safety and security of our citizens and visitors," he said.

The Sheriff's Office identified the deputies involved in the shooting as Cpl. J Carballosa and Deputy D. Delay. Although Parker was involved in the incident, she didn't fire her weapon.

Carballosa has been with the St. Johns Sheriff's Office since May 20, 2013. The Sheriff's Office said this is Carballosa's second deputy-involved shooting. The first was in 2015.

Delay has been with the Sheriff's Office since Jan. 18, 2022, while Parker has been with the agency since June 21, 2021.

The investigation by the Sheriff's Office Major Crimes Unit is ongoing and is seeking photos or video of the shooting.

Meanwhile, the Sheriff's Office has contacted the sports associations that were present when the shooting occurred, as well as the St. Johns County School District, which plans to have counselors available this week for any students who might need their services.

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: St. Johns deputies shoot, kill suspect at Nocatee's Davis Park