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Man Tries To Run Over Two Officers; Shots Fired
September 10, 2015
Two Pensacola Police officers are on paid administrative leave after they fired their department issued guns at a man who tried to run them over with a vehicle Tuesday night.
The incident initially began around 7:50 p.m. Tuesday when officers were dispatched to a disturbance call in the 2100 block of West Belmont Street. A 30-year-old woman – Teresa Bailey – told police her former boyfriend – Deantawane Mitchell, 25, of Pensacola – was banging on her back door.
When officers arrived at the house, they learned Mitchell had left the area. Officer Mark Norman, who is familiar with Mitchell and knew he had an active warrant with the department for a criminal mischief incident that occurred in July, went to the Travel Inn, and found him sitting in the passenger seat of a car on the left side of the business.
As Norman walked toward the car, he heard Mitchell begin yelling at the driver to leave.
When the driver refused, Mitchell shoved him out of the car and took control of the vehicle. Mitchell threw the vehicle into reverse and struck Norman’s marked police vehicle. He then did a three-point turn in the parking lot and accelerated at a high rate of speed toward Norman and Officer Sarah Barbosa.
Both officers yelled at Mitchell to stop or said they would shoot. Mitchell continued accelerating toward the officers, who each fired their weapon several times at the vehicle.
When Barbosa tried to get out of the path of the on-coming car, she fell backward and struck the back of her head on the concrete. As Mitchell was trying to leave the parking lot, he also struck a concrete wall.
Officer Charles Restifo later saw Mitchell and the car near the intersection of A and Lee streets. Mitchell then began trying to escape from Restifo by jumping a fence and running behind a house in the 500 block of West Lee Street where he was taken into custody.
Warrants have been signed charging Mitchell with two counts of assault on a law enforcement officer, and one count each of carjacking, resisting arrest without violence, leaving the scene of a traffic accident, fleeing/eluding police, and not having a driver’s license.
Mitchell was shot one time in the hand and received two additional superficial injuries consistent with a bullet wound. He was taken to a local hospital for treatment of non-life threatening injuries. Barbosa also was taken to a local hospital where she was treated and released.
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is conducting a review of the incident in conjunction with the Pensacola Police Department.
Comments
8 Responses to “Man Tries To Run Over Two Officers; Shots Fired”
@ John: I’m with you 100 %. I had intended to ask “small arms” how many fire fights he has been in and how many people he had killed. Maybe he’ll respond on here.
Certainly I wish they had been a better shot but in the heat of the moment only training hones your shot to these results. Unless you are a sociopath or completely numb to combat, your pulse races in these circumstances
God bless these officers. Many people are not appreciative of the people that protect them. I would be ashamed of any negative comment.
In response to “Retired small arms marksmanship instructor”,
That’s pretty big talk from an anonymous man behind his keyboard. Done much work on a two way range lately? It’s quite easy to pick these brave officers’ performances apart from the comfort of your Mom’s basement, but then you don’t have a car bearing down on you, do you?
Do us a favor, keep teaching marksmanship fundamentals, but leave the battlefield critique to those on the battlefield.
@ Retired small arms: Yes the P.D. does regular fire arms training. I guess under stress all of your trainees would score 100%. Under poor lighting -possibly using PC 9mm rounds it’s a little different than a firing range. I’m one of those old dinosaurs who was an instructor when all anyone had was a 38. Then we went to 9mm’s and most departments have gone to higher power rounds. I’m still certified on most weapons. You may recall that putting TV shooting aside that many rounds will ricochet and I had this happen to me when a driver tried to run over me. I guess you used the shooting test of having your students holster their weapon–run 200 yards draw and fire on a target. The purpose of this is to get the heart and breath rate up as in a stress situation. There were shots fired into the air and ground. I’ve seen the best shooters miss and i’ve seen the worse shooters hit the bad guy when it mattered. I am slow to question the ability of another trainer so I’ll leave it at that.
Each officer fired several shots and he was only struck once in the hand.
Don’t police spend time at the range anymore?
Worse yet, were did all these errant rounds end up?
Were it me or anyone I certified, the young man’s family would be making funeral arrangements today!!!
unfortunately someday police officers will stop and consider if the risk of loosing their life and job would be worth protecting the public in the way they are trained to do so. I hope this will not happen. Protecting the public is priority and upheld in doing their jobs. I can’t imagine having a job as a police person and scrutinized by every criminal he /she has to confront. A world without police people would be so dangerous…I dare not think of the consequences…criminals taking over and having more rights than police and victims is a crime all by itself.
All you ladies out there that want a “badboy” consider the consequences. Many of them, like this guy probably, have mental problems. When your”badboy” turns out to be crazy & hurts or kills you, don’t say you were not warned.