Jacksonville, Florida — On Friday, August 18, 2023, a high school football game was scheduled at First Coast High School. Earlier that day, JSO and the Duval County school police received intelligence of potential violence between rival groups of the football game. Based on this intelligence, these law enforcement agencies deployed additional officers to protect those attending the game. The two shooting officers, Officers Eleftheriadis and Lowe were on scene at First Coast High School that evening as part of the safety deployment.
Immediately preceding this critical incident, they conducted a traffic stop near the school parking lot entrance. That traffic stop resulted in the arrests of multiple individuals on Firearms charges. At 8:56 p.m., while the two shooting officers were still handling the traffic stop, a large fight broke out in the parking lot. Approximately 30 to 40 people were involved in this fight. Immediately, the shooting officers ran towards the fight. Then, 15-year-old Devonn Thompson, who was positioned on the opposite side of the fighting group from the officers, opened fire.
Both officers armed themselves with their service weapons and shot at Thompson. Thompson fled on foot and the officers ran after him. During the foot pursuit, the officers repeatedly yelled loud verbal commands at Thompson to drop his gun. Thompson did not comply with these directives and continued running. The officers fired additional rounds. Thompson jumped the fence and ran across Duval Station Road. An officer apprehended Thompson outside a nearby convenience store. Shortly thereafter, officer Lowe arrived where Thompson was apprehended.
Together, these officers safely handcuffed Thompson, called for paramedics and immediately began emergency medical care. When paramedics arrived, Thompson was transported and treated at an area Hospital and then was released the next day. He sustained a graze wound to his head and a gunshot wound to his right hip. Thompson was booked into the jail on multiple felony charges stemming from this incident. Thompson is currently charged with the following felonies: discharge of a Weapon on School Property, Possession of a Firearm on School Property and Carrying a Concealed Firearm.
While rendering emergency medical care to Thompson on scene, the shooting officers located Thompson’s gun tugged inside his pants. Crime scene detectives responded to the scene and collected Thompson’s gun, a 9mm handgun with one round in the chamber and eight rounds in the magazine. This firearm had been reported stolen on August 13, 2023, during an auto theft. Additionally, crime scene detectives collected two casings from the First Coast High School parking lot. These casings were forensically confirmed to have been ejected from Thompson’s gun.
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