JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- Nothing is left but a shell of a home. A SWAT team, searching for a fugitive, fired tear gas into a house on Gilmore Street thinking Deshawn Brown, 27, was inside.
An unidentified neighbor told us, "You could hear smoke, tear gas, whatever it was they were shooting off several times during the night."
This happened early Friday morning, in a Riverside neighborhood where people are already too afraid to show their faces, people who don't really want to be associated with what happens next door. But with all the commotion, they couldn't help but look outside.
"I went outside because, you know, it woke my household up. And as soon as I went inside, I was coughing, sneezing, my eyes were watering. And I'm all the way on the next block," said the neighbor.
Police say they went to the Gilmore Street home looking two men: Shawn Robinson, 23, and Brown. Police were notified the suspects might have a weapon, so they called the SWAT team, which is standard JSO procedure. They say Robinson, who was wanted on traffic charges, gave up without a fight. But some time while the SWAT team was setting up, Brown slipped away.
There are two schools in the area, Lee High School and Central Riverside Elementary School. The situation threatened to close those schools Friday. But police cleared the scene before school started, and classes were held as scheduled.
Anyone who knows where Deshawn Brown is can call Crime Stoppers at 866-845-TIPS.
