MSM – by M. Alex Johnson, NBC News
One person was shot, a second was in custody and at least one other was being sought Wednesday after a Hollywood-style car chase with police bullets flying at the Jacksonville, Fla., airport, authorities said.
The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office said the incident may have been related to a shooting near Highlands Elementary School. It gave no further information, but NBC station WTLV of Jacksonville reported that the lockdown, which was imposed as a precaution, was lifted Wednesday afternoon.
The second shooting occurred in the rental car garage at Jacksonville International Airport about 2:20 p.m. ET, said Jacksonville Sheriff’s Chief Tom Hackney, who described a car chase that resembled Hollywood fiction:
Jacksonville SWAT officers following up an auto theft last week spotted the car in question early Wednesday afternoon and began following it as it made its way to the airport, Hackney said at a news conference. Once there, it made its way to the rental car return area, where the driver “stopped in an odd position” that made it clear that he had spotted the trailing officers, Hackney said.
Detectives in two sheriff’s cars tried to block the car, one parking in front of it and one behind. The driver of the car, a light-colored Ford Crown Victoria — oddly enough, the vehicle of choice for many of the U.S.’s police forces, among whom it’s known as the “Cop Victoria” — began ramming the sheriff’s cars, first backing up and then slamming into forward repeatedly, Hackney said.
It worked. The car managed to escape the blockade and sped in reverse through the garage and out onto the street as a sheriff’s detective opened fire, striking the car three times, Hackney said.
Other police and sheriff’s units that had been alerted to the confrontation began tracking the car, which was found later at a Jacksonville apartment complex. Two men were in the car, a 27-year-old man described as the cars owner and a 17-year-old boy who had been shot in the ankle, Hackey said.
They were arrested, but a third man who was known to have been in the car had fled the scene, Hackney said. A fourth man may also have fled, but that hadn’t been confirmed, he said. No law enforcement officers or members of the public were injured, he said.
The man known to be at large was identified as Rodney Lorenzo Addison, 20. He was described only as a black male. Hackney urged residents to take care, saying that while it wasn’t known whether Addison was still in the Jacksonville area, “this is a dangerous man — these detectives felt this enough that they used deadly force.”
Travelers were allowed back into the airport’s rental car area Wednesday afternoon. Aircraft departures and landings weren’t affected, the Jacksonville Aviation Authority said.
Why was the car’s owner in it if it was stolen?