5.56X45mm
Milforum Mac Daddy
An 18-year-old Jacksonville man killed during a gunfight with a police officer Saturday night was stealing a pair of jeans from the department store he was fleeing, police said Sunday.
Joel Abner, of the 3500 block of Townsend Boulevard, died after being hit by seven bullets in the side, face, top of his head and back. He was found wearing a pair of stolen jeans on top of his own clothing.
Officer Jared Reston was hit six times, including three bullets that were stopped by his body armor vest. He was listed in critical condition Sunday afternoon at Shands Jacksonville with a broken jaw and other injuries.
The gunfight erupted about 7:45 p.m. after Abner led Reston on a foot chase that began outside the Belk store at Regency Square mall.
In the final moments, Reston was knocked to the ground and Abner "jumped around the officer, shooting at him" with a .45-caliber Glock semiautomatic handgun, Undersheriff Frank Mackesy said.
Reston was able to get back up and return fire, police said.
"It was a fight for life and they were in close-quarter combat," Mackesy said Sunday. "Just by the grace of God we didn't have a dead officer."
Reston fired 14 times and Abner 12, police said. Reston was hit in the face, buttocks and leg during the shootout.
Before the chase and shooting, Reston and officer Chis Brown were working off-duty and in uniform at the department store when store security asked them to monitor the apprehension of two shoplifters.
Abner and Christopher D. Smith, 20, of the 2700 block of East Sack Drive, had been observed leaving the store with merchandise, according to a police report, and were confronted in the parking lot.
While Smith struggled with store security officers, the report said, Abner "began slowly moving away from the scene," and then broke in to a run, heading across Arlington Expressway and down Atlantic Boulevard with Reston and Brown in pursuit.
Mackesy told the Times-Union Saturday that Reston repeatedly ordered Abner to stop. The chase passed several businesses and restaurants and went on for several hundred yards.
Mackesy said an unidentified witness saw Reston chase Abner into a dry drainage ditch, with the officer having drawn his gun.
Abner then turned around and pulled his hands out of the pockets on the hooded sweatshirt he wore and started shooting, the witness told police.
"He said the officer never stood a chance," Mackesy said.
Reston, a five-year veteran of the force, followed procedure during the chase, the undersheriff said, and fired only after Abner pulled his gun. "It's fully within policy to display your weapon and say to show your hands," Mackesy said. "If you do what you're asked, you don't have to worry about being shot."
A man at the apartment listed as Abner's address declined to comment Sunday. A woman contacted by phone who said she was Smith's mother also said she had no comment about the case.
Smith was charged with misdemeanor petty theft and resisting a merchant, according to an arrest report that said a $24 shirt was recovered. Smith does not have a prior criminal history, according to police. He was being held in the Duval County jail Sunday in lieu of $20,006 bail.
Police said Abner did not have a police record as an adult.
www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/012808/met_241131914.shtml
Joel Abner
Man, do they make criminals stupid....
