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.
Where does it say that the officers were impersonating drug dealers? And even if they were, why exactly is this a problem?
They quite easily could have identified themselves, since clearly they weren't dealing with a "target".
How do you know that the officers did not identify themselves?
They seem to like killing dogs too.....
Seems kinda sad when you get killed by the "good guys" /sarcasm.
Well, they did get administrative leave at least....(kill an innocent, get a vacation!)
This post is 100% cynical, 100% unintelligent and 100% worthless.
You are claiming that all undercover law enforcement operations are illegitimate. This is an utterly retarded assertion. If you consider yourself to be something other than a complete moron then please take a moment and ask yourself whether our nation should endure the effects of all of the organized crime and terrorism that are presently thwarted by the types of undercover law enforcement operations that have been a part of our society for generations. I don't care how stupid you are, if you think carefully you will change your mind.
You are not even in the ballpark. If the dead grandpa thought these guys were going to rob him why didn't he stay behind his locked door and call the police? You're just making stuff up.
Yup, undercover work is extremely dangerous and you take the job knowing these things. A case of poor threat assesment. However the reverse could be said about being careful who you wave a gun at.
When asked to leave private property by the property owner who is unaware that they are undercover do you really think the proper response is to shoot to kill the property owner for making such a request? Please tell me that you are not so insane!
How do you know he didn't call the police? You're just making stuff up.
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."How do you know that the officers did not identify themselves?
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.
From another news account:
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- An investigation is underway in Jacksonville to find out why undercover officers shot and killed an elderly man outside his home. 80-year-old Isaac Singletary died during a shoot-out with officers who were posing as drug dealers during a drug sweep.
Yep. I print my own.
My kids (and wife) are instructed to open the door with the chain on for only a uniformed officer WITH a marked squad car parked out in front. Ask for further ID and ask what he wants. Then go outside to hold the conversation. Under no circumstances do they come in without a warrant.
This was even more important when all the kids were younger and having tantrums, toys out in the yard, messy rooms, etc. The last thing I needed was someone coming in and seeing too many un-washed dishes piled up in the sink and say "these kids are in danger".
What were they doing on Grandpa's property without his permission?
The police will never face manslaughter charges or any other charges unless the victim is black and in LA.
No...Another Grandpa dead because he was stupid and did not put his gun down with AUTHORITIES told him to. The "cops" should be charged with the death. When I first read the story I thought it was going to be that Grandpa deserved to die, but that simply is not the case.
The cops should have had their supervisor contact the man first and get his permission to use his property. They would first have to ascertain that the old man wasn't part of the drug culture on that street or protecting an involved younger family member, which would have been easy to do.
IMO, the failure of those officers to properly identify themselves ought place them squarely under no less than negligent homicide charges and more probable murder two.
It ought be that when UC LEO fail to properly ID themselves in situations as this incident, they lose all immunity perks of the job.
I applaud Mr. Singletary's diligence and bravery to defend his own property - too bad he missed his targets.
"The story does not say if they were on his property or not."
The story quotes the nephew, "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."
Sounds like the cops were on his property.
Dealing drugs - that's how Grandpa Ike perceived them.
Not only all that, but here's something else: Using the old man's property to bust people on the same street he lives on could likely give the arrestees the idea that the old man was in on it and gave his permission, which could then bring retaliation from the scumbags down on the old man once they bail out or get out.
This was bad practice by the cops all the way around, and I say that with 32 years of LE experience.
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