A Jacksonville police officer was shot and critically injured Sunday morning at a home on Ridgeview Avenue, as investigators prepared to question a man who had fled from a traffic stop a week earlier, Sheriff T.K. Waters said.
The shooting of Officer Malink Daricaud was captured on his own bodycam. The suspect, Tyliko Getz Maduro, 32, was shown standing inside the Westside home with a rifle before the video showed the young officer falling to the ground as he was shot about 4:30 a.m., Waters said.
Waters said Maduro fired three rounds, hitting Daricaud once. More gunshots were heard from inside the home, but officers did not return fire. When officers finally went inside later in the morning, they found that Maduro had shot himself dead, the sheriff said.
Daricaud, a two-year veteran of the force and a "fine young police officer," received what the sheriff called a potentially fatal gunshot wound.
"They are significant — extremely significant," Waters said of the officer's injuries.
The sheriff visited Daricaud in the hospital Sunday morning. He said Daricaud was in a lot of pain and was talking.
"There's an environment that exists today that encourages people to fight the police," Waters said. "That should not be the case. And I see this happening more and more around the country. It's happening here since I've been sheriff, twice. And I have only been sheriff since Nov. 20. It is very rare that you have an officer shot in that short a time frame. We have to change that."
Traffic stop a week earlier
Waters detailed Maduro's traffic stop on March 19, showing another officer's bodycam after Maduro was pulled over for running a red light.
Maduro was asked for permission to check his vehicle for guns and drugs, then an officer asked him more questions.
"Are you a convicted felon," he asked Maduro, to which Maduro replied, "No sir."
"Then you ain't got nothing to worry about," the officer said.
Seconds later, Maduro sped away in a yellow Chevrolet Camaro as officers yelled at him.
"Officers did not give chase because it was merely a traffic violation at that point," Waters said. "They kept his name."
Officers did a follow-up investigation and tracked Maduro to a home on Ridgeview Avenue, just south of Morse Avenue near Interstate 295, the sheriff said. Officers knocked on his door and got no response, so his mother was asked to unlock the door.
Daricaud's bodycam showed two officers in front of the door. Maduro's mother pushed the door open and grabbed a dog, then gunshots rang out and Daricaud fell backward.
"No! No, Liko, stop," his mother yelled after the first shots. "Please, Liko. They are going to kill you! Please, they are going to kill you!"
"That camera view that you saw pointing straight up in the air was the officer’s bodycam, pointing straight up in the air after he was shot," Waters said as he paused, tapped the podium, then resumed.
"He did not move from that point," Waters said. "He is currently in the hospital, fighting for his life. Officers did not return fire. As a matter of fact, as this thing went further throughout the morning, SWAT officers came to the scene and surrounded the house."
Maduro had no warrants out for his arrest, and his jail record shows four arrests in 2008, 2010 and 2011 for possession of marijuana, possession of a controlled substance and parole violation.
"It's really strange to me," Waters said. "We didn't find anything difficult or tough; no convictions on his record. It's hard to explain what's in somebody's mind when they do something like that."
This is the second Jacksonville officer shot so far this year.
The last incident occurred Jan. 20 in the 1800 block of Hardee Street off Kings Road, when officers following up a burglary tracked a stolen smartwatch to a man they were seeking. Five officers on the scene saw a handgun on top of the car and a man sleeping inside.
A police officer's bodycam video shows officers surrounding the vehicle as they moved the gun off the roof and opened two vehicle doors. They told the man inside to wake up. Officers repeatedly told the man to put his hands up and get out, but he kept asking "What's going on," police said.
Seconds later, the man fired a gun, grazing the lead officer in the face. The five officers returned fire, killing a man later identified as Leon Bernard Burroughs, 39, police said.
