NOCATEE, Fla. — Past mugshots show the man shot and killed by St Johns County Sheriff’s deputies in Davis Park, while hundreds of children and family members where attending youth sporting events.
Emily Delaere comes here to Davis Park to walk her dogs. She was at home nearby Saturday when she heard about the deadly shooting.
“It was definitely shocking because this is known to be a nice area," Delaere said. “I haven’t seen anything like that happen here before."
The man shot and killed by deputies was 42-year-old Dustin Rush, pictured in a mugshot from a past DUI conviction in Jacksonville in 2008.
Court records show that in 2014 in the state of Indiana, Rush pleaded guilty to robbery resulting in bodily injury which is a felony charge. He was sentenced to 14 years but was placed in a community transition program in 2016.
Deputies say Rush participated in a burglary at a storage facility around 6 Saturday morning. Cell phone video, taken around 8:30, shows deputies confronting Rush before he fled in a truck.
The chase ended at Davis Park, where the Sheriff says Rush ran out of the truck with this gun and was engaged by deputies.
”There were multiple rounds that were fired. We have a lot of work to do to determine, how many, if any rounds he fired. We know for a fact he was armed with a firearm which was a pistol," Sheriff Robert Hardwick, said.
Hundreds of children and families were in the park on Saturday for youth athlete events, many hearing the gunshots and walking by the police scene.
“They acted very quickly, but it sucks that it happened during a children’s soccer game. that’s really hard for the kids especially with gun violence in the country today," Delaere said.
Representatives with the St Johns County Sheriff’s office say they will be releasing body-worn camera footage of the shooting in the future and at this time the investigation is still active.