Thursday

January 8, 2009

°

Homepage / Miami News
Text Size

Police-Involved Shooting Outrages Community

Wounded Man Suspect In Prior Armed Robbery

POSTED: Thursday, November 30, 2006
UPDATED: 1:45 pm EST December 1, 2006

Hundreds of people gathered at a meeting Thursday night, furious about a police shooting that left one man dead and another wounded.

Residents demanded answers from police, who continue to say that the officers were justified to fire on the men who were in the stolen SUV. One man said he wanted answers from police who "shoot first and ask questions later."

The men in the SUV were unarmed, but the officers said the driver put the SUV in reverse and was headed for them when they fired their weapons. Police said the two officers fired fewer than eight shots.

The Fort Lauderdale Police Department and the FBI are investigating the shooting. The FBI was asked to join the investigation because of the level of concern being expressed by the community. The two officers involved in the shooting that left 21-year-old Troy Eddines dead and Travis Jackson wounded were placed on paid administrative leave.

Man Wounded In Shooting Is Arrested

Jackson was wounded by police on Tuesday, but he left the hospital before he was identified as an armed robbery suspect. He was arrested at about 6 p.m. Thursday. It was unclear if Jackson was struck by bullets or by fragments.

Police said Jackson and Eddines were in a vehicle that had been stolen in Coconut Creek a few days before in an armed carjacking.

Police said that after two officers tried to approach the vehicle, Eddines tried to hit them with the SUV, and that's when at least one of the officers opened fire. Some witnesses at the scene corroborated the officer's version of events, while some others said that the shooting was unprovoked.

Police said that the victim of the carjacking later identified Eddines as the carjacker.

Jackson Identified As Suspect In Earlier Robbery

Thursday, police said that the victim of an alleged robbery that happened Saturday afternoon identified Jackson as one of the men who robbed him.

The alleged robbery happened three days before the police-involved shooting.

Police said that the armed robbery happened in the parking lot of the Lakeside Apartments in Tamarac. Three boys, two 15 and one 17 years old, had just left the Lil Grocer store in the Lakeside Plaza and were walking home.

The boys that said while they were in the apartment building's parking lot, a white Mitsubishi SUV circled them, stopped behind them, and two men got out. The teens said that both men were armed with semi-auto handguns and they told the boys, "don't run and empty your pockets."

The teens said that the men racked the slides on their auto pistols and pointed the guns at them. The boys said that they complied with the demands, dropping two cell phones, an iPod, three Play Station 2 games, and $30 in cash onto the ground.

The boys said that the two men picked up the loot and fled in the SUV.

Jackson, who was struck twice by police fire, was taken to Broward General Medical Center, but, under circumstances that deputies have not explained, he left the medical center Wednesday night.

One of the teens identified Jackson as one of the armed robbery suspects.

Shortly after the Broward Sheriff's Office sent out a release late Thursday afternoon asking for the public's help to catch Jackson, deputies arrested him at the Plantation Inn on Route 441.

Jackson is charged with three counts of armed robbery.

Text Size

Most Popular