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Off-Duty Police Officer Shoots Man Outside Fla. Bar

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The Associated Press

Published: December 28, 2008

ALABAMA - An Alabama police officer is on paid leave after shooting a man who allegedly used racial epithets and
threatened him with a knife outside a Florida bar, police said.

Officer Maurice Wiley of Foley, Alabama shot Johnny Cloud, 37, of Century, once in the stomach with a .22-caliber pistol as Cloud approached the policeman with a knife, said Sgt. Ted Roy of the Escambia
County Sheriff's Office.

The wound is not considered life-threatening.

A Foley police statement says the officer, who is black, was taunted by three white men after arriving at Boomerz bar around 2:30 a.m.

Deputy Police Chief Randy Bishop said the officer was not intoxicated.

"He got there at last call to meet a friend," Bishop said. "He might have had one, two (drinks) when these men, I guess what you'd call skinheads, came up to him and started giving him a hard
time, using the N-word. He got up to leave, to just walk out and go home, and they followed him."

The police statement said the officer left the bar when hen he heard one of the men saying that he was going to his car to get a pistol.

Several witnesses told investigators that Cloud attacked Wiley in the parking lot while the officer tried to prevent the altercation, Roy said.

"Cloud had a knife in his hand and kept coming at him," Roy said. "Wiley identified himself as an officer and did everything he could to diffuse the situation and as a last resort shot him in
the stomach," Roy said.

Cloud could face criminal charges, including aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, when he is released from the hospital, Roy said. He said no charges have been filed against Wiley and it does
not appear the officer violated any Florida weapons laws.

Bishop said Wiley is on paid leave pending a standard internal investigation. The weapon used was not his service pistol.

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