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Cop killing suspect caught after manhunt

Hundreds of officers search for a man accused of ambushing Lake County deputies. He's caught after a daylong hunt in woods.

By wire services
Published February 10, 2005

Jason Lee Wheeler, 29, had been arrested four times in Florida, mostly on drug charges.

Deputy Wayne Koester, 33, had been with the Sheriff's Office since last May. He has two children.

Related 10 News video: The manhunt for a suspected cop-killer is over

PAISLEY - A felon accused of killing one sheriff's deputy and wounding two others in a gunbattle was captured Wednesday after a daylong manhunt that ended with more gunfire.

Aided by helicopters, armored vehicles, airboats and bloodhounds in the swamps and hills of the Ocala National Forest, hundreds of law enforcement officers tracked down Jason Lee Wheeler, 29, in woods 6 miles from his rural Lake County home and appear to have wounded him in a gunfight.

Wheeler's capture came about 5 p.m., eight hours after he allegedly ambushed deputies who arrived at the home about 40 miles north of Orlando to investigate his girlfriend's battery complaint.

"We were able to flush him out of the woods," said Lake County Sheriff Chris Daniels. "There was a confrontation. There was gunfire."

Daniels said he did not know details on Wheeler's wounds, and said no deputy was wounded in the capture.

Wheeler was removed from the forest on a stretcher aboard an airboat. He was transported to Orlando Regional Medical Center, where hospital spokesman Joe Brown said he was in critical condition.

The drama began hours earlier when Wheeler allegedly emerged from the woods blasting away with a shotgun at three Lake County sheriff's deputies who arrived at his home about 9 a.m. in response to the domestic battery call.

Deputy Wayne Koester, 33, died after being transferred to a hospital, sheriff's Capt. Nick Pallitto said. Deputies Tom McKane, 26, and Bill Crotty, 39, were treated at Florida Hospital Waterman in Tavares for leg wounds that were not life threatening.

Sara Heckerman, Wheeler's girlfriend, had told authorities in a 911 call that her boyfriend "almost killed me yesterday."

On a tape of the call released by the Sheriff's Office, Heckerman said: "My old man has lost it and he has promised me that if a cop pulls into that driveway there's going to be a gunbattle."

She said, "I had to get my kids out of there" before getting a chance to call authorities at a neighbor's house Wednesday morning.

Deputies arrived in separate cars at the home. Wheeler, known as an avid hunter and dirt biker, did not appear to be there, so they began stringing crime scene tape. Wheeler came out of the woods and fired a sawed-off shotgun at Koester, hitting him in the head, Daniels said.

Wheeler had a police scanner and could have known the deputies were coming, investigators said.

"He just came out shooting," Pallitto said. "You train for a lot of things but it's tough to train for that."

In the ensuing gunfight, the two other deputies were wounded before Wheeler escaped. It was not clear whether he was wounded then. Officials said he fled on his Honda 250 motorcycle, which was found abandoned at a landfill near an elementary school.

"You could hear shotguns, you could hear pistols. It ... went on for several minutes," said neighbor Paulette McKinnon.

McKinnon said a bruised Heckerman came to her house Wednesday morning asking to use her phone. Heckerman told McKinnon friends were watching her two small children in a motel.

After the deputies were shot, about 500 deputies and officers from 28 law enforcement agencies joined the search.

Two nearby elementary schools, Spring Creek and Seminole Springs, were locked down and area roads were blocked off. Officers checked drivers and looked in vehicles as traffic backed up in all directions.

Bob Curry, principal of Spring Creek in Paisley, said his students were kept four hours past their normal 2 p.m. dismissal.

According to state records, Wheeler has been arrested at least four times in Florida, mostly on drug charges, and served two six-month jail sentences. The most serious charges against him came in October 1995 for possessing cocaine and resisting arrest with violence.

The Sheriff's Office said deputies have responded to eight disturbance calls at Wheeler's Lake Kathryn address since 2001.

Wheeler also lived in northwest Ohio, where he was arrested on charges of contributing to the delinquency of a minor, felonious assault and disorderly conduct between 1997 and 2000.

Koester, a stepfather of two children and the father of two from a previous marriage, had been with the Sheriff's Office since last June, officials said. For eight years before that he was an Umatilla police officer.

The Florida National Guard said he was a specialist stationed with DeLand-based Battery B, 1st Battalion, 265th Air Defense Artillery, and assisted in the aftermath of last year's hurricane season.

Koester was the first Florida law enforcement officer to die in the line of duty this year.

McKane's father said his son was not seriously wounded.

Crotty is the brother of Orange County Mayor Richard Crotty. "He's fine. He's going to be fine," the mayor said.

Information from Associated Press and the Orlando Sentinel was used in this report.

[Last modified February 10, 2005, 04:16:32]