JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Police are investigating a homeowner who shot a man accused of trying to carjack him in the Herlong area of Jacksonville.
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Neighbors say it’s usually a quiet area, but for about five hours police were there investigating after they say a guy ditched a stolen car and then tried to steal another one from a man who later shot him.
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“It’s very shocking,” neighbor K.P. Lancaster said.
“It’s been a day and I’m sorry that it happened, and I’m sorry it happened it here,” neighbor Sheryl Anglin said.
JSO said around noon, A K9 officer tried conducting a traffic stop of a stolen car out of Suwanee County, on Spring Lake Drive.
Police said the suspect then took off after kicking a woman out of the car.
He reportedly abandoned it at a dead-end spot near the woods on Justin Road West, before he ran towards a home on Oxbow Road.
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That’s when JSO said the suspect held the homeowner at gunpoint while trying to carjack his car from inside his garage.
Anglin described what had happened to her neighbor saying, “The guy told him he had guns on him and he told him, ‘Give me your keys or I’ll kill you.’ And he said, ‘Oh sure, but I have to step in the house to get it.’ So when he did that, he grabbed his gun instead.
Police say the suspect – a 30-year-old man – then ran across a pasture in that area where neighbors chased him down.
“I just heard gunshots and people going every which way, pretty much searching him out trying to keep this neighborhood safe.” Lancaster said.
Anglin said the suspect ended up in her backyard.
“I mean he was out to kill, and he said he was out to kill cops too,” Anglin said.
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Then she said her neighbor, Don – the homeowner who the suspect is accused of attempting to carjack– shot him.
“So, when he starts coming towards him, Don says ‘Stop’ because the guy already told him he was going to kill him and so Don shot him.”
The detective Sgt. Karen Dukes said this was an interesting case where neighbors came together to protect their own.
“This is a little unusual that we’ve got an armed citizen that is defending themselves,” Sgt. Dukes said.
Sgt. Dukes said the homeowner is cooperating with police as they investigate the shooting.
“We obviously want to make sure that we do a thorough job investigating whenever someone is shot to make sure that it is or isn’t justified and the reasoning behind it to make sure it’s lawful,” Sgt. Dukes said.
After about five hours of the initial shooting, Sgt. Dukes said they recovered the suspect’s gun in the woods.
JSO said the suspect is suffering non-life-threatening injuries to his leg.
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