Seven bullets couldn't stop Orange County deputy
She and another injured patrol officer outgunned three home invaders who had ambushed them.
By Pedro Ruz Gutierrez, Henry Pierson Curtis and Rich McKay
Orlando Sentinel
May 6, 2004, 11:00 AM EDT
PINE HILLS -- Wounded and worried about three children a few feet away, Orange County Deputy Sheriff Jennifer Fulford emptied her .45-caliber pistol and then reloaded during a fierce shootout Wednesday with three home invaders in Pine Hills.
An assailant's bullet hit her gun hand, forcing her to use her left hand to continue fighting.
Before the shooting ended, she and Deputy Sheriff Dwayne Martin had killed one of the attackers and shot another one in the head. A third was arrested when other deputies arrived.
"I heard she went through one clip and reloaded, which is totally unbelievable," said Steve Jones, chief spokesman for the Sheriff's Office. "It's just by the grace of God we're not burying two more deputies."
Fulford, 31, was shot at least seven times in her hand, arms and legs before she could return fire. Martin, 30, was hit once in his shoulder during the gunbattle at a home where authorities later found at least 340 pounds of marijuana.
Both deputies were in stable condition after surgery at Orlando Regional Medical Center.
Fulford and Martin rushed to the home on Medford Drive after a frantic 911 call at 7:50 a.m. from an 8-year-old boy, whose mother had been forced into their home by the would-be robbers.
When deputies arrived, the suspects made the woman go outside to tell Fulford and Martin everything was OK.
Instead the woman told deputies about the attackers and begged Fulford to rescue her children who were inside her vehicle in the garage.
As Fulford approached the van, she was ambushed, and the shooting started, Jones said.
Both deputies trained their semiautomatic Glock pistols on George Jenkins, 25, and John Dzibinski, 25. Jenkins was killed, and Dzibinski was in critical condition Wednesday evening with a gunshot wound to the head. A third man identified as Shaun Byrom, 20, was taken into custody and was arrested on charges of felony murder. All three were in Central Florida from South Carolina.
The boy and his 2-year-old twin siblings stayed in the van during the gunbattle. Neither they nor their mother were hurt. Sheriff's officials did not identify the woman.
Deputies later went to the Enterprise Motel on Vine Street in Kissimmee where the South Carolina residents had been staying and seized two AK-47 semiautomatic assault rifles.
Those weapons match several used during a similar home invasion in North Charleston, S.C., police reports show.
Spencer Pryor, a spokesman for the North Charleston Police Department, on Wednesday said Jenkins and Dzibinski were wanted on charges of first-degree burglary, armed robbery and possession of a firearm while committing a violent crime Jan. 6.
In that crime, the suspects fled in a burgundy Honda Passport that matches the sport utility vehicle found Wednesday outside the home that is owned by Clinton Allen. The South Carolina victims also reported the suspects carried semiautomatic handguns and an AK-47.
In Pine Hills on Wednesday morning, bursts of gunfire rattled the neighborhood shortly before 8 a.m.
"It sounded like 10 or 15 shots, going back and forth," said 13-year-old Alexander Roundtree, a neighbor who watched the shooting unfold from his window across the street. "Then I saw this man fall down. He was the man in the white shirt. He didn't get up."
Sheriff's investigators were stunned when they found the marijuana and said the drug appeared to be the motive for the attack. It also cast suspicion on what initially seemed a random act of violence against a mother and her three kids.
Sgt. John Allen, who heads the sheriff's homicide squad and is no relation to Clinton Allen, said the suspects had loaded some marijuana into their vehicle when deputies arrived. Deputies later used a search warrant to confiscate more marijuana in the garage area and inside the home. No drug-related charges were filed.
Sgt. Allen said late Wednesday that an unidentified person helped the suspects set up the robbery of drugs at the house.
Investigators said the mother was leaving the house to take her son to school when the three men burst out of the SUV and forced her back inside her home. Her alert son then picked up her cell phone and dialed 911.
"Apparently one of the heroes in this story is the 8-year-old boy," said Jim Solomons, a sheriff's spokesman. "He was able to get his mom's cell phone and make a critical call."
Minutes before the shooting, residents reported seeing the burgundy SUV in their neighborhood.
Near the intersection of Hastings Street and Balboa Drive, the driver spoke to a school crossing guard and then waved down a local resident to ask for directions to Medford Drive.
"He asked me where the street was and I said, 'I don't know for sure,' " said the woman, who would identify herself only as Tonya.
A burgundy SUV could be seen parked backward in the driveway outside the Allens' house after the shooting.
Two large bags that appeared to be plastic lay on the ground next to the vehicle. Neighbors said deputies pulled them from the SUV. Each bag contained a large amount of marijuana, sheriff's officials said.
The emergency prompted the sheriff's SWAT team to surround the house and evacuate neighbors, who later reported seeing tear gas fired into the house.
"We saw the bodies getting dragged out," said Crystal Cosson, a friend of Tonya's who described two wounded suspects being carried by deputies.
The single-story house is the only one in the neighborhood with burglar bars covering every outside window and door. Clinton Allen is a friendly but quiet man, a commercial painter who keeps an immaculate yard, neighbors said.
A woman, who identified herself as Clinton Allen's sister but did not give her name, said her brother was visiting Jamaica on Wednesday. Her brother had lived on Medford Drive for more than five years. He has four children, she said.
As deputies searched the area for other possible suspects, several nearby schools were locked down for about two hours. They were Hiawassee, Oak Hill, Pine Hills and Pinewood elementary schools and Robinswood Middle School.
Althea Jackson, Hiawassee's principal, said her staff locked all the doors and kept children in their classrooms but didn't tell the 700 students anything about the incident.
Fulford has been a deputy since 2001 and works as a road-patrol officer. She's a field training officer and was training another deputy, Jason Gainor, at the time of the shooting. Gainor was not injured; it's not clear if he was involved in the shootout. Martin joined the agency in 1999 and also is a patrol deputy. Last year, he spent several months in Iraq as a reservist.

August 28, 2005
 
Suspect shot, killed at scene of robbery
Deputy fired fatal shot after robber aimed gun at her
By John Tuohy and Raygan Swan
john.tuohy@indystar.com
 
A Marion County sheriff's deputy fatally shot a man who investigators say was menacing a family during a home invasion early Saturday.
A man believed to be an accomplice continued to elude deputies late Saturday.
A third man who deputies believe knew of the residential robbery on the Northeastside was arrested nine hours later after a two-hour standoff at his home nearby, police said.
The shooting happened in the 5900 block of Linton Lane, where Deputies Nicole Hopkins and Myron Minor had responded to a 1:30 a.m. call of a robbery in progress at a house.
When deputies approached the front door, they saw a man with a gun tying up a woman in a front room, said Marion County Sheriff's Sgt. Michael DeHart.
The officers cracked the door open and ordered the man to drop the gun, but he ran out the back door. As he fled, another man stepped into the front room and pointed a gun at Hopkins and Minor, DeHart said.
The officers, still at the front door, fired three or four shots at the man inside but did not wound him. That man also ran out the back door.
The deputies ran to the backyard. Hopkins ordered the second man to stop. The suspect turned and pointed a gun at Hopkins, and the deputy shot and killed him.
Police would not release the 34-year-old man's name Saturday because his family had not been notified.
The other suspect at the scene escaped.
Police said the intruders were trying to tie up a family of four and a family friend.
One of the victims, Brian Melton, 23, was charged with possession of marijuana when deputies said they found marijuana in his bedroom.
Lt. Chris Boomershine said the robbers were in search of money and drugs.
After the fatal shooting, deputies were told that Sam King, 20, was involved in the home invasion, though he was not at the house.
Deputies went to question King, who was wanted on warrants for unrelated charges of battery and intimidation, at his home in the 5100 block of East 64th Street.
King refused to come out of his house, barricading himself, his girlfriend and their 4-year-old child in a bedroom, police said.
Police called for the SWAT team, who called King. He agreed to release his girlfriend and child, and minutes later he surrendered, Boomershine said.
King had not been charged in connection with the home invasion as of Saturday night but was being held on the charges listed in the warrant.
Boomershine said deputies still were investigating whether King, the shooting victim and the man still being sought were involved in a series of residential robberies on the Northeastside.
"We are working with Indianapolis police on a number of them," he said.
According to a search of Sheriff's Department records, King and Melton have known each other at least four years.
In 2001, Melton told deputies that King and another man attacked him because they thought he told police they had 2 pounds of marijuana, according to the records.
Melton told deputies then that he feared for his life because both men might have guns, the records show.
Melton's parents were reluctant to talk about Saturday's incident. His mother said the family was traumatized and that her son "has a good heart."
DeHart said Hopkins has been with the Sheriff's Department for about four years.
He said she probably would take a paid leave of absence while the shooting is investigated, though it is not required.
Boomershine said Hopkins is the first female deputy in the department's history to fatally shoot someone in the line of duty.

4 in alleged robber gang suspected in man's killing
By JON FRANK, The Virginian-Pilot
© August 20, 2005
VIRGINIA BEACH — A robbery gang that authorities think operated undetected for about two years by pretending to be Virginia Beach police officers raiding drug dealers is suspected of killing a Pungo man in June.
During preliminary hearings Friday, murder charges were sent to the grand jury against two of four people accused in the death of Andrew David Bright, 28, who was shot on June 6 at 2245 Old Pungo Ferry Road.
Arrested and charged with the crime were:
Russell Houston Smith Jr. , 22, of the 200 block of Tatem St. in Knotts Island, N.C.; Steven Daniel Cline, 24, of the 3900 block of Breezeport Way in Suffolk; Melville Dean Olson, 26, also of the 3900 block of Breezeport Way in Suffolk; and Sarah E. Brandon, 20, of the 900 block of Tulls Creek Road in Moyock, N.C .

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On Friday, 12 charges each against Cline and Olson were certified by General District Judge W. Edward Hudgins Jr.
Similar charges against Brandon and Smith are expected to be sent to the grand jury at preliminary hearings set for Thursday and Sept. 9, respectively.
Friday’s hearings shed new light on a crime that rocked the normally peaceful Pungo section of Virginia Beach.
Bright, an electrician, was a known marijuana dealer, according to his brother, Mark Bright, 31, who testified during both hearings.
Mark Bright and his wife, Amy, 29, were at their home with Andrew Bright on the night of the shooting. The intruders, who entered wearing masks and gloves and carrying guns, bound the couple with duct tape.
Andrew Bright, who was in an upstairs room, also was bound with tape. When he tried to escape, he was shot in the back and fell down a set of stairs in the home.
The gunmen ran out of the house.
Mark Bright testified that he grabbed an antique shotgun he owned and tried to follow, seeking vengeance for his wounded brother.
“I would have shot them, and I would have killed them,” Mark Bright testified.
But he soon lost the trail and had to turn back.
His brother, still breathing when Mark Bright returned, died soon after the shooting.
Virginia Beach police Detective Ray Pickell testified that he interviewed Olson on June 28 at police headquarters.
During the interview, Pickell said Friday, Olson revealed how he and his three co-defendants plotted and carried out their assault on Bright’s residence.
Pickell said Olson gave the following account of the crime:
The four traveled by car from Suffolk to Pungo. Before leaving, they divided up masks, gloves and weapons – a 9mm Ruger handgun, an AK-47 assault rifle and a .308 rifle .
They arrived at the parking lot of Capt. George’s restaurant in Pungo, and the three men got out of the car. Brandon drove away while Smith, Olson and Cline, on foot, cut through an adjoining cornfield that led to Bright’s residence.
Smith kicked in the door. The three men entered, wearing masks and gloves as Smith hollered, “Virginia Beach police.”
The three stole a small amount of money and about 2 pounds of marijuana before Bright tried to flee and was shot.
After leaving the house, the men contacted Brandon by cell phone and arranged a rendezvous at a nearby bridge.
They traveled back to Suffolk and divided the stolen money and marijuana.
Also on Friday, a separate preliminary hearing for another defendant shed further light on the group .
Robbery and abduction charges against Elmer R. Smith III, alleged to have participated in at least one of the gang’s other home invasions, were certified to the grand jury.
Police think that Smith, wearing a mask, entered an apartment in the Linkhorn Bay neighborhood on Feb. 6. He was accompanied, according to police, by Cline and Russell Smith , who is Elmer Smith’s cousin.
One of the residents of the apartment was a cocaine dealer, according to Richard Inskeep , 20, who testified Friday.
Inskeep said the three men entered the apartment claiming to be Virginia Beach police officers participating in a raid. They carried rifles or shotguns with flashlights attached to the barrels, Inskeep said.
The men left when police sirens sounded, Inskeep said. They stole a small amount of cash. No one was injured.
Pickell testified that he interviewed Elmer Smith about the crime in Currituck County, N.C .
Although Smith did not admit to committing the February home invasion, he told Pickell that he was at the apartment complex at the time of the crime.

Reach Jon Frank at (757) 222-5122 or jon.frank@pilotonline.com.

Cooperation lacking
More than a dozen reports note that victims declined to give a statement or would not contact police for follow-up interviews.
Some victims are hesitant to assist police because they are engaged in criminal enterprises, Snodgrass said.
According to the reports, in at least 15 of the 78 home invasions, the victims knew their robbers. At least three cases involved the theft of drugs that the suspects appeared to know the location of within the home.
Drug-hunting home invaders were selective about what they took, such as when two suspects burst into a home at Lake Mead Boulevard and H Street during the early morning hours of Sept. 23.
The suspects ordered the woman inside to lie on the floor. One punched her and the other "went straight to the back master bedroom and opened `weed' drawer. Suspect took marijuana that was hidden inside cigar box, $500 in cash, and purse," the report states. "They knew exactly where she kept her marijuana and money. Suspect left behind a wallet full of money that was on top of dresser."
No arrest was made. Police couldn't get the roommate who owned the drugs to contact them.
"With the dope dealers, some guy might be buying dope at a place, and they know the guy's going to have lots of money inside. So they rip 'em off," Snodgrass said.