Keys police shooting was justified, and the suspect was on ‘acid,’ county sheriff says

A weekend police shooting on U.S. 1 in the Lower Keys was justified because the suspect first pointed a gun at officers from behind the wheel of his car, the Monroe County sheriff said Wednesday.

Initial reports by the sheriff’s office indicated that the suspect got out of the car and fired at least once at officers on July 18.

But the suspect remained in his car during the stop and the gun jammed, Monroe County Sheriff Rick Ramsay said in an interview on U.S. 1 Radio.

Whether the suspect’s gun discharged is under investigation, the sheriff’s office said Friday.

Ramsay also said the suspect was feeling the effects of the hallucinogenic drug, LSD.

The sheriff did not return a cell phone message and an email from the Miami Herald this week.

Julian Vaughn Thomas, 24, whose home address is listed in arrest records as Houston, was shot three times by officers — twice in the shoulder and once in the chest.

“He will live,” Ramsay on Tuesday, in a Facebook video statement in which he briefly mentions the police shooting.

As proof of the police version of events, Ramsay held up a large photograph, apparently taken from an unidentified officer’s body camera.

The sheriff then says if you look closely, you can see a handgun inside the car pointed in the officers’ direction.

Ramsay later said the photo shows a round is stuck in the gun’s slide as it’s pointed at officers.

“Thank God, the gun jammed,” the sheriff said in an interview with U.S. 1 Radio’s Morning Magazine host Bill Becker. “That close, he would have shot our officer before we could have returned fire and protected our own lives.”

Thomas was visibly impaired at the time of the shooting and told medical staff at Jackson Memorial Hospital he had taken LSD, according to Ramsay.

“Seeing him on the in-car videos and stuff, you can tell he appears to be very high on something,” Ramsay said. “We think he was high on acid when he committed these heinous crimes, which makes it that much more scary and dangerous.”

The sheriff’s office on Wednesday said the body camera footage is part of an active investigation and cannot be released at this time.

Thomas led police on a slow-speed chase up U.S. 1 until he was finally stopped by Florida Highway Patrol troopers at mile marker 10 on Big Coppitt Key

A trooper slammed into the Ford Focus, forcing it to stop and deputies approached the suspect, Ramsay said.

“We had the car surrounded with multiple law enforcement cars on both sides,” Ramsay said.

But Thomas would not comply with orders to get out of the Ford, he said.

A deputy went up to the Focus, which had tinted windows, and broke the glass so he could see the suspect, Ramsay said.

“He looked inside and he saw the barrel of a gun about two feet from his head pointing right at him,” Ramsay said. “At that point in time, that deputy and the other officers engaged him and discharged their weapons, firing and striking him three times.”

Ramsay said, “His injuries, thank God, were not life-threatening. More so, thank God, no police officers got shot in the melee.”

Once “subdued,” Ramsay said, Thomas dropped the gun and put his hands out the window.

“We took him out of the car,” Ramsay said. “ Deputies immediately began rendering first aid.”

Thomas remained hospitalized in Miami on Wednesday, the sheriff said.

“He’s up there still,” Ramsay said Wednesday. “We expect to get him back next week.”

On Friday, Thomas was booked into the Stock Island Detention Center.

Thomas was arrested one count of attempted murder of a law enforcement office, one count of aggravated fleeing and eluding (speeding) and one count of fleeing and eluding, the sheriff’s office said Friday night.

Ramsay said his office has asked the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to investigate the police shooting.

Deputies and state troopers were pursuing Thomas because Key West police said he robbed a man of his cellphone earlier.

Thomas pointed a handgun at a man who was outside the county library branch at 700 Fleming St. in Key West, demanding his Metro By T-Mobile cellphone.

“Give it,” Thomas said, according to the cellphone’s owner, Todd Mahoney.

“Here you go,” Mahoney replied, the Key West arrest report states.

Thomas had pointed the gun at Mahoney’s face, Key West police said.

After taking the phone, valued at $100, Thomas got back into a silver Ford Focus with Louisiana plates — after pointing the handgun at Mahoney a second time — and took off, obeying traffic signals and laws, according to Key West police.

But Thomas wouldn’t stop for officers, who tailed him as he drove out of town and onto U.S. 1, the only road in and out of the Florida Keys.

He wouldn’t stop for sheriff’s deputies, either, police said.

Deputies popped one of the Ford’s tires with a spike strip laid over the road. A maneuver by the FHP brought the Focus to a stop.

Key West police have filed felony charges of armed robbery and resisting an officer by fleeing or eluding law enforcement officers.

Ramsay said his agency will add charges of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon on a police officer.

“This young man’s got a lot of problems coming his way,” Ramsay said. “We’re just so thankful that no one got killed, whether it be the suspect himself, the victim who was robbed or the police officers who have to do a difficult job every day.”

This story was originally published July 22, 2020 at 4:09 PM.

Gwen Filosa

Miami Herald

Gwen Filosa covers Key West and the Lower Florida Keys for FLKeysNews.com and the Miami Herald and lives in Key West. She was part of the staff at the New Orleans Times-Picayune that in 2005 won two Pulitzer Prizes for coverage of Hurricane Katrina. She graduated from Indiana University.