Officer Kills 17-Year-Old Suspect After Catching Thieves In His Home

[Illiy]

Officer Kills 17-Year-Old Suspect After Catching Thieves In His Home

POSTED: 6:59 am EST January 18, 2008


ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. -- Police released the names of two suspects involved in a shootout with a Daytona Beach police officer Friday that injured the officer. Brandon Harris, 17, was fatally shot by the officer, while 16-year-old Jordan Mathis was critically injured.SLIDESHOW: Images From The Scene Of The Shooting
EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEWS: Eyewitness Describes Scene | Police Chief Speaks OutThe officer engaged in the gun battle Thursday night with three thieves who were trying to burglarize his house, police said. An alert neighbor had called 28-year-old Daytona Beach Police Officer Jermaine Jones, who was out with his pregnant wife, when he saw the officer's Pine Hills house on Champagne Circle being burglarized.When Jones got there, he saw three suspects leaving his house. He alerted the thieves that he was a police officer and, seconds later, bullets started flying.Kim Starks, a neighbor, described what she heard Jones say when he arrived home."'Please, please. I'm warning you. Get on the ground. Get on the ground. You need to get on the ground,'" Starks heard Jones say before the shooting started.After the shooting subsided, Starks called 911."I told the 911 operator that there is a dead body in my driveway," said Starks.VIDEO: Residents On Edge After Officer Catches Robbers In Own HomeInvestigators said there were at least eight shots fired, including the bullet that struck Officer Jones in the stomach."I thought it was the TV and my grandson says, 'No, it sounded like a gunshot,'" said neighbor Betty Mitchell."As a result of that, one of the suspects was shot and killed, one suspect shot and injured and another suspect, we believe, is possibly at large," said Jeff Williamson, a spokesperson for the Orange County Sheriff's Office.Detectives used police dogs to search for the missing suspect, but they lost his scent in the neighborhood."They apprehended someone else out of his house, pulled a gun from him and put it on my driveway. That's when i learned my neighbor had been shot," Starks said.Officer Jones and the 16-year-old suspect who survived the shooting, Mathis, were both taken to Orlando Regional Medical Center. Daytona Beach Police Chief Mike Chitwood said Officer Jermaine Jones was going to be okay. He was in stable condition late Friday morning and was expected to recover after being shot once in the abdomen.The bullet, Chitwood said, went right through and did not hit any vital organs. He got out of surgery around 5:30 Friday morning.Mathis was in critical condition after the gunfight. Even though he's just 16, his criminal record is lengthy. It includes a felony arrest in August 2006 for striking a teacher at Wolfe Lake Middle School in Apopka. She asked Mathis, then 14, to take off a headband he was wearing.Jones' wife was also at the hospital. She is five months pregnant and she was said to be in good spirits."For somebody who's five months pregnant, she's in remarkable spirits," Chitwood said.Jermain Jones has been with the Daytona Beach Police Department for two years. Just last week, he received an award for efforts in a robbery case. Chief Chitwood said he would've never imagined that he would have to fight off criminals at his own home."I'm furious to think that this officer comes home, identifies himself as a police officer, draws his weapon and their response is to open fire on him," said Chitwood of the incident. "You have these 16-, 17-year-old thugs that have no respect for life or property and tonight they ran into the wrong person."Chitwood said the big concern now was what to do next now that everyone knows where Officer Jones lives. He said they will determine if it is even safe for his family to return to their neighborhood to live.While it was an officer-involved shooting, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement is not involved because the officer was not on the job when it happened.

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[Willowdared]

Shouldn't the headline read..."Officer wounded by thieves, returns fire, and kills suspect?

[Ducky]

Kudos. It sounds like his department is behind him 100%. Glad the officer will have a full recovery.

[Illiy]

Shouldn't the headline read..."Officer wounded by thieves, returns fire, and kills suspect?

You would think... That doesn't make "good news" though... gotta love the media...

[MacLean]

Perhaps they should have re-considered taking on a trained adversary.

I don't get the part about FDLE not doing the investigation because he was off duty though, court decisions have ruled that the moment you yell "police" you are on duty for the purposes of official action.

[OffDuty]

Hooray for comments made by that chief!

I love when good guys win.

[TheeBadOne]

Punks get the attention they deserve.

[Twan007]

Shouldn't the headline read..."Officer wounded by thieves, returns fire, and kills suspect?

+1 - stupid media... at least the article wasn't too slanted

guess folks need to start thinking that not every house they try to rob belongs to joe public... sometimes there's someone who knows how to use that thing sitting on the trigger end...

"Beware the man who only has one gun.
HE PROBABLY KNOWS HOW TO USE IT!!!"