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Deputy fatally shoots driver; 2 officers injured during chase

By BEN MONTGOMERY and ABBIE VANSICKLE
Published April 15, 2006

SUN CITY CENTER - After the chase, after the Dodge Ram slammed into two sheriff's cruisers, flipped and came to rest upside down in the median on U.S. 301, the driver scrambled from the wreckage.

Deputy Daryl Bowden jumped from his car and drew his gun.

"Put the knife down!" the deputy shouted, according to a sheriff's spokesman.

The man advanced toward the deputy, spokesman J.D. Callaway said.

Bowden, a father of four who in six years on the job had never fired his weapon outside of training, made a split-second decision.

He fired, killing the unidentified man. Two sheriff's deputies were injured during the chase.

Authorities say it all began when a deputy tried to pull the man over at 12th and North streets in Wimauma about 1:30 p.m. Friday. The man swerved toward the deputy and sped away in his pickup.

He raced west down State Road 674 toward Sun City Center, past Rachel's Country Kitchen and the Sun City Mobile Home Park.

Several deputies gave chase.

The man whipped north on U.S. 301, where he plowed into the passenger side of an unmarked sheriff's car, which was straddling the highway.

He spun around and gunned it, ramming the rear of another sheriff's car so hard the hood of its trunk flew off. The jolt left Cpl. Mark Clark with neck and back pain.

The pickup flipped and crashed down in the median.

A woman nearby heard four shots.

Frank Jones, who drives a dump truck for Cook Construction, saw the man fall in the middle of the road.

He also saw the deputy with the gun.

Jones said it looked like the man, who was wearing a gray sweat shirt, dungarees and tennis shoes, was about to run.

"I didn't see no knife," Jones said. "All I know is he had it pointed at him and goes bam, bam, bam."

A folding knife, about 6 inches long, was lying on the asphalt next to a crime scene marker. Callaway confirmed that it was the weapon Bowden reported seeing.

Jones was shaken. After he described to investigators what he witnessed, some buddies escorted him to his truck and sent him home to Plant City.

Clark, whose vehicle was rammed from behind, was taken to the hospital, Callaway said.

Bowden, 50, was taken to the hospital for muscle strains.

Ben Montgomery can be reached at bmontgomery@sptimes.com or 813 661-2443.

[Last modified April 15, 2006, 00:52:10]