Jacksonville police shot and killed a third suspect this month, the latest a man they said fired a gun during a standoff and had been pointing it at SWAT officers.
It began about 8 p.m. with multiple 911 calls about shots fired in the 7700 block of Lenox Avenue. When officers arrived, a man came out the front door holding a gun, Chief Alan Parker said. He didn’t point it at that time but went back inside. A SWAT team arrived and “he did fire one round when they got on scene,” although Parker said they weren’t sure if it was at the officers.
“They set up the perimeter. For a couple of hours they voiced to him. He was in and out, walking in and out with the gun, pointed it at them numerous times,” Parker said. “… At the end he finally comes out the front door, he’s still not complying with their commands, and he walks over to go to a neighboring residence. They engage him in the yard before he gets to the residence. They’re saying, “Stop, drop the gun, drop the gun.’ He doesn’t, he tries to get into that neighboring residence, and that’s when they had to shoot him.”
Calixto Benvenutti, 44, did not survive, the chief said. Court records show he lived at 7778 Lenox Ave.
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Investigators later learned from family that although he wasn’t diagnosed with mental health issues, he had shown signs of schizophrenia and seeing people who were dead, Parker said.
So he “tries to self-medicate with Xanax, meth, alcohol. And today apparently what set him off, he couldn’t get any meth or Xanax today, so he kind of went off and looks like he started drinking and everything escalated throughout the day,” Parker said.
The officers were all members of the SWAT team. They were identified as Koty Crews, who’s been on the force 10 years and this was his second police shooting; Phillip McCranie, a 26-year veteran involved in three shootings; and Shane Lyons with three years with the department and this was his first shooting.
This was the Sheriff’s Office’s ninth police shooting of the year, five fatal. Last year police shot a total of eight suspects, three fatally.
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“If we get to a point where we have to use deadly force, it’s going to be because it’s necessary and it had to be done,” Sheriff T.K. Waters said. “This is the situation we were put into tonight. That gentleman could not be allowed to enter into another residence, cannot allow him to take a hostage. Don’t know if that’s what the case is, but we know he was trying to get into some place else; could not allow that to happen.”
The city had 32 homicides this time last year and now is up to 41, according to Times-Union records.
(This story has been updated with a name spelling change.)
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Standoff ends with Jacksonville officers shooting and killing 3rd suspect this month
Reporting by Scott Butler, Jacksonville Florida Times-Union / Florida Times-Union
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
