Man shot, killed by police on Westside (Jacksonville, Florida)

Police: Officers serving eviction notice at neighboring apartment threatened by man with gun.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - A Jacksonville man is dead after two police officers shot at him during a confrontation on the Westside.

But the man's relatives -- and their attorney -- are raising questions about what happened.

“The family is very upset. They want answers and they want them now, but they also want calm,” attorney Eric Block said. “They want everybody to behave themselves. They want everybody to let the truth come out.”

The two officers involved -- 25-year Jacksonville Sheriff's Office veteran Steve Srozinski and 24-year JSO veteran Troy Blum -- are on administrative leave while JSO investigates the shooting, which happened just after 10 a.m. Tuesday at an apartment complex on the corner of Blanding Boulevard and Du-Clay Road.

Police still haven't identified the man killed, but an attorney for his family said it's 28-year-old D'Angelo Stallworth, a father of three and a supervisor at UPS. The attorney said Stallworth was visiting his children and girlfriend when he was shot.

JSO Director Tom Hackney said Srozinski and Blum, who are part of JSO's civil process unit, were at the Planters Walk apartments to make sure that an eviction notice posted earlier had been carried out. He said they went into the apartment in question with two maintenance workers and found it empty and clean but one of the officers noticed a man outside on a shared balcony.

On each end of the shared balcony are laundry rooms, and the laundry room for the neighboring apartment was open with a comforter on the floor outside the laundry room, Hackney said.

One of the officers went out to question the man, Hackney said, and the man reached down, threw back the comforter, picked up a handgun and then drove it into the chest of the officer but didn't fire. The officer yelled that there was a gun, and the second officer came out to help, Hackney said.

The officers struggled with the man over the gun. He was able to break free and run down the stairs, but when he got toward the bottom of the steps, he turned back toward the officers, Hackney said.

“Both officers, fearing that the firearm was going to be used against them, fired their guns,” Hackney said.

One officer fired twice and the other fired four times, Hackney said. It's unclear which officer's shot hit the man or how many times he was shot. He ran a few feet, collapsed and died, Hackney said.

After investigating, detectives believe the man dropped the gun at the top of the stairs as he ran away, so it appears he was unarmed when he was shot.

There's a lot of tension right now between the man's family and police. Some of his relatives said they believe he was unjustly killed.

“It's a horrible thing,” Block said. “I promise you we are going to get to the truth. And we are not stupid. This is a political hot topic: young, unarmed, at least he was unarmed at the time he was shot six times. It's debatable if he was ever armed or not. We will get to the bottom of that.”

But investigators said the man put their officers in danger, and they had to protect themselves. They also said after investigating the scene that they found two containers of marijuana packaged for sale under the comforter where the man had the gun.

“You can only make some assumptions that the gun and the marijuana went together,” Hackney said. “This certainly highlights the dangers of what they do (when) a seemingly least worrisome call that we could have, a civil serving of papers, turns to something that's deadly.”

After talking with witnesses, Block said some of the information police gave the media was either inaccurate or incomplete. But he's pleading for patience.

“We are going to get to the truth. Do you hear me? We are going to get to the truth,” Block said. “And when we do, whatever it is, we will accept it, and we will go from there.”

The attorney said he'll give the media more information about what happened later. But Stallworth's family is too distraught to say anything to reporters yet.

The two officers involved are on paid administrative leave as JSO investigates. That's standard procedure in any police shooting.

Stallworth has one previous local arrest. In 2010, he pleaded guilty to battery on a pregnant woman and served one year of probation.

This is the sixth police-involved shooting in Jacksonville in the last five months. Two of those have been deadly.

The gun had just been poked into the chest of one of the policemen. Then the guy ran away and down the stairs - before hesitating and starting to turn after creating some distance. It does not surprise me that in this situation they lost track of the gun.

In addition to the two police officers there were two maintenance people in the immediate area.

Press conference was held a while ago in which these were addressed.

That’s what the cops said. But the fact remains, according to the cop boss in Jacksonville, the suspect was unarmed when shot dead.

Seems odd, according to the cops the suspect dropped a gun at the top of the the stairs and ran down the stairs and gets shot to death by cops who were apparently at or near the top of the stairs where the suspects gun is allegedly laying on the floor. How did they not see the gun?

Who knows at this point.

But again, what seems to be clear is at the time of the shooting the cops shot the suspect to death without seeing a weapon in his hands.

If you’re going to shoot someone running away, it’s not advisable to simply assume they’re armed and attempting to kill you.

It seems you’re attempting to make me the story or issue here. I had nothing to do with the outcome here. I only clarified the suspect was unarmed when shot to death, as a poster mistakenly thought differently. I have no idea what the cops were thinking here. Based on the reports, the only thing which appears clear is the cops shot the suspect to death before seeing a weapon in the suspects hand. You might not understand, but cops are supposed to be trained to look at a suspects hands for weapons, before shooting.

First off I was a Police Officer. So I know what I was supposed to be trained to look at.

How fast do you think things were going in that house when someone shoved a gun into your chest and pulled the trigger? Than takes off running down a hallway for the stairs (which may have one half burned out light blub in it). He hits the stairs at full speed and and is probably only hitting every 2nd or 3rd tread on the way down.
Then he gets to the bottom just as you and your Partner reach the top. Your both screaming at him the whole time. Police STOP. POLICE STOOOPPPP. He gets to the bottom and starts turning.
You've got your gun on him and your not waiting for him to get a second chance to kill you. BOOM.GET ON THEGROUND BOOMBOOMBOOM. Then you scream into your radio 'Shots Fired ---- Man down'.

Run that through your head at 5x speed with your life on the line.

Think about it; He shoved a gun into one of the Officers chest and tried to kill that Officer. But failed.
He ran into a stairway and dropped the gun (what was the lighting like?).
The Police chased him.
The Police ran passed the gun he dropped (did they see the fallen gun?).
The dead guy got to the bottom of the stairs and started to turn back towards the Police.
The Police shot and killed him (did they believe he was still armed or did they, seeing the gun on the floor - think he might have another gun on him?).

I only clarified here the suspect was unarmed when shot to death, as a poster mistakenly thought differently.

I have no idea what the cops were thinking here. Based on the reports, the only thing which appears clear is the cops shot the suspect to death before seeing a weapon in the suspects hand.

You might not understand, but cops are supposed to be trained to look at a suspects hands for weapons, before shooting.

First off I was a Police Officer. So I know what I was supposed to be trained to look at.

Very commendable. So you should have been trained for this too.

How fast do you think things were going in that house when someone shoved a gun into your chest and pulled the trigger?

Did I not say I have no idea what the cops were thinking. I have no idea what they saw or why they shot an unarmed man.

BTW, you have a very large imagination. I like the bit about the light bulbs and how the suspect ran on stairs.

However my comments were regarding the incident as reported here. Not pure speculation and imagination.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.