NOCATEE, Fla. — UPDATE: The man shot by St. Johns County Sheriff's deputies at Davis Park in Nocatee died at the hospital after being airlifted following a pursuit by deputies that was originally linked to a burglary on Palm Valley Road.
Sheriff Hardwick says around 5:42 a.m., deputies responded to the burglary in progress at a storage unit facility on Palm Valley Road. He says when deputies arrived and began clearing the facility, they learned that "one of the suspects was still in there." The suspect, identified as Crystal O'Neal, 37, was taken into custody, Hardwick said.
O'Neal faces multiple counts on charges of burglary and criminal mischief, as well as one count on a larceny charge. She is currently being held on no bond, jail records indicate.
Next, Hardwick says deputies learned that there was "one suspect [left] outstanding," as police began to search the immediate area for them. He says K-9s were used in the search but, led deputies to some dead ends. Other deputies in the Nocatee, Palm Valley and Ponte Vedra Beach areas, Hardwick says, started looking for "additional suspects" involved in the burglary as well. During this time, the sheriff's office says they came across a suspicious vehicle that was under the Palm Valley Bridge, and was similar to the vehicle description given to police at the storage unit facility.
A deputy approached the vehicle, Hardwick says, and made contact with the man, identified as 42-year-old Dustin Rush.
"At first he's being compliant, and then some type of struggle ensues," Hardwick said. "We don't know yet until we download the body-worn cameras and the dashboard cameras from her car."
The vehicle then took off, police say, and deputies pursued the vehicle, heading toward Nocatee on Palm Valley Road and over the Palm Valley Bridge. Hardwick says the pursuit led police units on a road that goes into Ponte Vedra High School, and then eventually led to Davis Park.
Hardwick says three police vehicles were in pursuit of Rush and the lead vehicle, took an "evasive action" to stop the pursuit. Rush's vehicle spun into a retention pond at the park in which Hardwick says he continued to drive through until the vehicle became disabled. The sheriff says the deputy's vehicle that "pitted him," was disabled as well.
Hardwick says the deputy whose vehicle was disabled, got out of her vehicle and immediately engaged in a foot pursuit on Rush as he was carrying a pistol in his hand. Rush took off running toward a soccer field at the park where children were playing, police say, and then took a "defensive posture" between two vehicles in the parking lot. At this time, the sheriff says a shootout occurred between deputies and Rush in which "multiple rounds were fired."
One witness told First Coast News that she heard rapid fire and about "30 to 40 shots." The woman also says that there was a baseball tournament going on around the time of the shooting.
Rush was shot an unknown amount of times and was flown to a hospital in Clay County where he died from his injuries.
"We had a large amount of children playing... organized sports with their families," Hardwick said. "We had a reckless suspect with no caution at all for life [and for] people in the parking lot walking around. It breaks my heart when our deputy sheriff tell you today that as they are showing up for backup, there's children proned out on the soccer field," Hardwick paused, "children on the soccer field because this man took action to evade the police department."
Hardwick says the deputy who approached Rush under the Palm Valley Bridge, suffered lacerations and no one else was reported injured besides her and Rush.
