Posted on 01/30/2007 1:12:56 PM PST by FreedomCalls
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- An elderly man is dead and two Jacksonville Sheriff's Office detectives are on administrative leave after an undercover narcotics investigation ended in gunfire late Saturday.
According to the JSO, detectives Donald Maynard and James Narcisse had been working undercover for about three hours in the 2300 block of Westmont Street when 80-year-old Isaac Singletary approached them with a gun just before 6 p.m.
The officers said they ordered the man to put down the gun. However, Singletary did not drop his weapon and gunshots were exchanged.
Singletary was shot several times. Paramedics rushed him to Shands-Jacksonville Medical Center, where he died.
Less than 24 hours after the fatal police shooting left his uncle dead, Gary Evans told Channel 4 he's mad.
"Eighty-years-old, and they had to shoot him twice or more in order to subdue him. I'm very upset about it," Evans said.
He said his uncle was territorial and mad about the drugs on his street, and would often take his gun and try to scare the drug dealers away.
On Saturday, things went terribly wrong.
"My uncle asked the officer, which he didn't know at the time he was a police officer, to leave his property and he didn't," Evans said.
Neighbors told Channel 4 that Singletary was very protective of his property.
"You don't expect somebody to come pointing a gun at you, and once they do that, the officers will tell them to drop the gun," JSO Chief Dwain Senterfitt said. "We're still investigating what statements were made, but obviously, at that point, the officers' lives were in danger."
Police said they are still trying to figure out if the undercover officers had time to tell Singletary they were undercover officers. They said the detectives had to hid behind a tree to avoid being shot by Singletary.
According to police, the officers had been in the neighborhood since about 2:45 p.m., and had made five drug-related arrests.
"In the course of our undercover activity and making several arrests in this neighborhood, a man we now know to be a resident of that area, Mr. Isaac Singletary, was shot by officers," said Director of Investigations and Homeland Security Micheal Edwards.
Saturday's shooting was the third JSO-involved shooting in three weeks. Unlike last week's case at the Sable Palm Apartments, there is no dispute whether Singletary had a gun.
"There was a confrontation between them and an exchange of gunfire," Edwards said.
However, the question of who fired the first shot remains unanswered.
"He shot at my uncle first. He was the first one to shoot, and my uncle returned fire," Evans said.
"As you know, our investigation into any shooting must be thorough and methodical. At this time, there's a limited amount of information we can share," Edwards said.
As the details of the shooting are being hashed out, scared neighbors and sad family members remember Singletary.
"I looked in his eyes I saw his pain. I felt the pain for him. He never bothered anybody. He's never done anything to anybody. He didn't want anybody in his yard," said neighbor Antionette Douglas.
" Show some dignity."
I save my dignity for those times when I'm conversing with people who recognize and appreciate dignity.
"That's disgusting. "
Yes it is disgusting,that anyone can be that popular with the gun grabbers.
I'm seriously considering that for a tag line.
According to the article, they were "undercover".
The problem that these senior citizens have is that they no longer live in the country of their birth, or the one they were promised when they immigrated.
The world changed around them while they were watching Oprah.
It's really sad how people get lured into a sense of comfort and complacency while the world around them collapses into something they despised or actively avoided in their younger years.
Yes it is disgusting,that anyone can be that popular with the gun grabbers.
This is getting pathetic. I haven't seen such blatant duplicity since Michael Jackson tried to *explain* how "God turned stones to bread" in his song "We Are The World" when the Bible says turning stones to bread was the temptation Satan tried on Christ.
You would do well to look up the first rule of holes.
Not really.
You don't know for certain that the shooting by the police took place on the old man's property or if the cops had been on the property in the first place.
But as has been pointed out to you several times the article as written does say that the encounter took place on his property. That is what we have to go on other than fantasy.
"My uncle asked the officer, which he didn't know at the time he was a police officer, to leave his property and he didn't," Evans said.Neighbors told Channel 4 that Singletary was very protective of his property.
A neighbor who was there and witnessed the events:
"They didn't have nothing on that said, POLICE. After the man told them to get out of his yard, they didn't say, 'We're holding a police investigation out here, or we're officers.' They didn't say none of that."
The eyewitness report from another neighbor who was there and saw what happened:
"That's the first thing he did. He came outside and asked, 'Will you please get off my property? You have no business on my property. You know you're wrong, get off my property.' The next thing you know, he said, 'He's got a gun.' So he ran around the tree and he shot Pops. Pops fell right here. Pops fired some shots, but all his shots hit the tree because the dude was behind the tree. That's exactly how it went," said Price Benton III, a neighbor.
(That last quoted link pretty much ends all rational debate as to whether they were on his property.)
From that same link which a transcript of a video...
(A neighbor:)"Pops says whatever you do out in the street or over on the side of the fence, that is your business, but you're not going to bring it in this yard."
Reporter: So when Issac Singletary saw a drug deal going on in front of his house, he wanted them gone and took action. >> "The man didn't know that they were actually police officers because this man is like this about the whole neighborhood. He do not like people in his yard."
But on Westmont Street, emotions are still raw after a man who had the respect of those on the street was gunned down doing what they say he always did -- protecting his property.
Reporter: Gary Evans says his uncle Isaac had grown tired of the drug dealing around his house and wanted cops to come and clean it up. >> "He would call me and say yeah, Gary some undercover officer was out here today. Picking up the boys around here. He would welcome that and those were the very same ones that took his life."
There really isn't any doubt that this occurred on his property and that the undercover cops were on it. This is far more than just his nephew's word here. If you want to bow out of the argument for lack of substance to back up your position I can certainly understand.
All of this information that you have presented is not in the original story which is where I sourced my comments. This additional detail obviously paints a different picture which I am sure you would agree.
I now realize that I have been attempting to carry on a rational conversation with a certain species of hole. I will not be making that mistake again.
These cops acted arrogantly and could have easily diffused the situation. They obviously didn't know much about the citizens they were supposedly there to protect and serve. This attitude is increasing in police departments around the country. Most cops do a good job and a difficult job. This kind of arrogance towards a citizen, an old man, his property rights and his right to defend himself and his home only makes the jobs of all cops harder.
It also makes it harder for honest citizens to take care of themselves. This old guy had the cajones to go out and tell young drug pushing punks to get lost. If more in his neighborhood had been willing to take a stand those cretins would have left the area. Now they will be more afraid than they were to deal with the scum and with the police too.
The situation there went from bad to worse because two hotdogs felt that they were too important to back off for one day, too important to learn who the residents were and where they stood and too important to think that anybody but they were qualified enough to carry a gun and enforce some civility.
nope. i'm just a cop trying to get drug dealers off the street and have some idea as to what that entails.
oh yes, it's very easy to stop at every house you step foot near while trying to maintain cover and concealment and ask permission to use their front lawn. jeez, i dont know why i let myself get so flustered by all the cop-hating around here.
you can keep your "qualifications." i'll keep my badge and my job of getting drug dealing scumbags off the streets. i guess the whole second guessing by people who have no idea what it's like. bottom line: someone points a gun at me, i shoot. undercover narcotics is as tough as it gets.
My brother worked as a city cop in the hood and described the problem as a "No Win" situation. The residents demand police presence, protection and results. They want the cops to be sympathetic to their plight yet turn around and complain when the cops actually do any work be that arresting gang bangers, stopping the drug traffic or keeping the streets clear. They get blamed for shooting people who draw down on them, coming after them with knives or who try to run them over. If they take a hands off approach then they are accused of not caring about the black folk.
This is but one of many situations out there where something went bad. No one knows why the cops did what they did and they might be in the wrong here for having been on the guy's property when the shooting went down. However, if this was a high crime area then the cops are likely considering it hostile and when someone comes out waving a gun how should they react?
One point you make and I agree with strongly, when people allow drugs and gangs to come into their area and don't try to stop it then they have to accept what happens. More people need to step up.
I notice you didn't answer my question..........Officer. And save your woe is me, you don't know what it's like crap. Nobody forces you to stay in the job.
Cops like you are why we are like we are. I have a whole lot less distress over "drug dealing scumbags" than scumbags that operate under the color of authority.
This is but one of many situations out there where something went bad. No one knows why the cops did what they did and they might be in the wrong here for having been on the guy's property when the shooting went down. However, if this was a high crime area then the cops are likely considering it hostile and when someone comes out waving a gun how should they react?
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Nice soliloquy. Too bad it has nothing to do with the case at hand.
All the cops had to do was LEAVE
Even though this was not necessarily a paramilitary raid, it demonstrates that government frequently oversteps it's bounds and often innocent people die because of it. Often there is little if any recompense to the survivors.
And then they get to listen to people complain that they never do anything to stop the drug dealing and violence. Why do you think they were even there to begin with?
You obviously haven't heard how tough their job is, and how unappreciated they are.
BTW, bravo on your succinct summation.
Yeah, you're right. If you want your streets safe, you have to put up with a few dead 80 year old residents.
What did you snort for breakfast?
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