A police car is parked where St. Johns County deputies shot a man to death. | News4Jax
Published on September 10, 2025 at 12:51 pm
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A 911 call about a suspicious person in a yard in South St. Augustine ended with deputies shooting a suspect to death, according to the St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office.
Director Howard “Skip” Cole, who runs the county’s Criminal Investigations Division, said deputies were called to a home in the area of 1st Street and Brainard Drive about 5:40 a.m. Wednesday.
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The area is about a half-mile east of U.S. 1 near Moultrie Creek.
Cole said a woman had called 911 to report a suspicious person in her backyard. The woman told the dispatcher she thought it was a neighbor she had previously had issues with.
When deputies arrived 10 minutes later, they found a 45-year-old man in front of the caller’s home holding a handgun.
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Cole said the man refused to drop the gun or follow the deputies’ commands, and they fired at him.
He died at the scene. The deputies were not injured.
Cole said the agency has had at least a dozen calls about the man’s behavior in the neighborhood over the last five months.
Detectives are speaking with multiple witnesses, and the names of the man and the deputies involved will be released later.
This story was produced by News4Jax, a Jacksonville Today news partner.
