OCALA, Fla. – An Ocala police officer opened fire on a suspect who pulled out a gun while being chased, authorities said.
No one was injured in the shooting, which happened around 4:30 p.m. Thursday at the Promenade Apartments on SW 27th Avenue.
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According to Ocala police, officers were called to the complex for an altercation and one of the groups involved said they were going to return with guns and shoot the people who called the police.
Officers said they then saw a vehicle occupied by four people enter the complex and witnesses began running away, saying it was the other group.
Two of the four people in the car ran away, said police, who added that one of them was arrested but the other, Dallas Dothard, 23, was chased through the complex by a patrol sergeant. During the chase, police said Dothard pulled out a handgun and the sergeant fired a round at him but did not strike him.
Dothard was apprehended a short time later and was taken into custody without further incident, police said.
No one was injured, police said.
Ocala Chief of Police Mike Balken said he’s proud of the way his officers handled the situation.
“It’s important to note that our officers performed incredibly well during this entire incident and I couldn’t be more proud of them,” Balken said. “We are extremely lucky that our sergeant was uninjured and, quite frankly, Dothard is very lucky that he’s still alive.”
The name of the sergeant, who’s been placed on administrative leave, which is standard procedure after a law enforcement shooting, has not been released.