A robbery call to a Gate gas station on Bowden Road off Interstate 95 led to a confrontation with police and officer fatally shooting the armed suspect, According to the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office.
This was the department’s sixth police shooting of the year and fourth that resulted in a death.
Undersheriff Shawn Coarsey said it began about 9:20 a.m. Tuesday, March 17, with an armed robbery call. A man had walked into the gas station and waited for the other customers to leave before he pulled out a handgun. He instructed employees to exit the store and call police. The suspect also made comments about wanting to harm himself.
At one point while the employees were outside, he opened the door and threatened to come out shooting before closing the door again.
“He remained inside watching out the front door waiting on officers to arrive,” Coarsey said.
When they did, he told them he would come out shooting. Then he opened the door with his gun raised and started walking briskly toward the officers, the undersheriff said. Officer H. Cascante fired his rifle multiple times, killing the suspect on the spot.
Coarsey confirmed it appeared to be a suicide-by-cop. The Sheriff’s Office later identified him as 49-year-old Michael John Krause Jr. Court records show a criminal history of minor arrests.
This was the officer’s first police shooting in six years with the Sheriff’s Office.
Last year the Sheriff’s Office shot 17 suspects, 11 of whom died, according to the agency.
The March 17 shooting follows an attack on officers the night before in a different part of town in the 1400 block of East 26th Street. Cmdr. Jordan Dowling said officers had pulled over a car on East 26th and Haines streets at about 11 p.m. when the two occupants got out and ran. The officers chased them on foot to the 1500 block of East 28th Street when they were fired upon from a house.
At least one person fired multiple times, but no officers were hit and they did not return fire, Dowling said. Officers then surrounded the house and arrested at least two people without further incident. One of the others who ran from the traffic stop also was taken into custody.
Early in the investigation, detectives do not believe the suspects in the chase and the house were associated with each other.
(This story has been updated with suspect’s name and a photo of the gun.)
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Jacksonville robbery suspect killed in ‘suicide-by-cop’
Reporting by Scott Butler, Jacksonville Florida Times-Union / Florida Times-Union
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
