JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office police officer was shot in the line of duty and now officer Malik Daricaud is fighting for his life in the hospital. Sources tell Action News Jax the 25-year-old was shot in the neck and body-worn camera video shows the devastating moments leading up to the gunfire.
Sheriff T.K. Waters said he’s in the X-Ray task force, which looks to get illegal guns and dangerous drugs and narcotics off the streets. The task force he’s in is following up on an investigation from March 19 when suspect Tyliko Maduro sped away from a traffic stop.
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Officer Daricaud is 25 years old with two years under his belt with JSO. The Sheriff said he visited him and his wife at the hospital.
“He was is in a lot of pain, he was saying things,” the Sheriff said. “From what they say, he’s still in a tenuous situation and we’re hoping he makes a full recovery.”
After Maduro sped off, officers didn’t chase him that night and decided to follow up days later. Officer Daricaud was also not present during the initial encounter last week. The Sheriff said they went to his house around 4:30 this morning to ask him some questions but nobody answered. They contacted his mother who said she’d come and open the door.
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When she did, her son was aiming down a rifle. Body camera video shows Officer Daricaud’s view from the ground looking up into the sky.
“He fell immediately and didn’t move from that point,” Sheriff Waters said.
Sheriff Waters said he was disappointed this happened, worried about the officer, and angry at people who decide they want to shoot at police.
“What I think is there’s an environment that exists today that encourages people to fight the police and that should not be the case,” Sheriff Waters said. “I’ve only been sheriff since November 20 and it’s very rare you have officers shot in that short of time frame. We have to change that, we are working towards changing that and working hard to show our community we care about them, and two, we don’t tolerate you shooting at our police officers.”
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“We don’t join to get shot, we don’t join to get in shootings, we don’t even join the Sheriff’s Office to kill people. we join the Sheriff’s Office because we love our community and want to take care of those in it,” he said.
Action News Jax asked why officers did this at 4:30 in the morning.
“No reason to wait, I think the best time to knock on someone’s door is as early as possible. As soon as you get to work or getting ready to leave and you have the opportunity to do that then let’s do it,” he said.
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Action News Jax also asked why they brought Maduro’s mother.
“They weren’t going to kick his door open, they didn’t have probable cause to do that so the best way to get there and speak to him is his mother they felt at that point,” he said. “I think in my mind, you don’t think that someone will open fire if his mother is at the front door.”
JSO said the suspect took his own life.
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With recovery efforts underway, the Sheriff’s office is hoping for the best.
“I don’t know if his career will ever be the same if there will be a career from here on. We can only pray there will be,” he said.
Sheriff Waters said Officers never returned fire and the suspect shot several more times throughout the morning, even when SWAT showed up. Sheriff Waters also said they didn’t find anything too serious, nor any convictions when looking through the suspect’s criminal history adding it’s tough to tell what goes through a suspect’s mind when someone does something like this.
A Gofundme for Officer M. Daricaud can be found HERE.
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