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Officer In St. Pete Shooting Is Rookie With Good Record

St. Petesburg Police Department

Police say they recovered this .38 caliber Smith and Wesson with three spent cartridges in the handgun at the scene.

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By STEPHEN THOMPSON | The Tampa Tribune

Published: June 9, 2008

Updated: 06/09/2008 04:09 pm

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• Audio: 911 Call
• Audio: 'Shots Fired'
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• Uhuru Protesters At Police Department

  Javon Dawson

ST. PETERSBURG - "I got a subject down" a barely-restrained voice said on the police radio. "He had a gun."

"I need a rescue," the voice said, asking for an ambulance.

Those words were uttered by St. Petersburg Police Officer Terrence Nemeth, a 24-year-old rookie, moments after he fatally shot a 17-year-old in the back Saturday night.

A more detailed picture of the shooting snapped into focus today as the police department released a 911 tape about a large gathering outside the Shining Light Masonic Lodge and the radio transmissions of police after they arrived. Police also provided a slightly clearer picture of the shooting.

A former U.S. Marine, Nemeth shot and killed Javon Maurice Dawson, a Gibbs High School student, after police received reports of a crowd of more than 200 outside the lodge, where there was a graduation party. Then there were reports of shots fired.

Dawson was reportedly seen firing shots into the air and horizontally when Nemeth confronted him in the street, authorities said. Nemeth told him to drop the weapon, Dawson didn't comply and Nemeth fired twice, said St. Petersburg police spokesman Bill Proffitt.

"I think he was trying to run at the time of the shooting," Proffitt said, but he also said it looks as if the victim was pointing his gun back at Nemeth as he was fleeing when Nemeth fired. That would explain the impact points on Dawson's back and the diagonal direction of the two bullets as they pierced Dawson's body and traversed across it, he said.

One bullet struck Dawson in the back right shoulder, the other in the kidney, Proffitt said.

Nemeth fired a Glock .45-caliber handgun. Investigators recovered from the scene the handgun Dawson is accused of holding -- a .38-caliber Smith and Wesson with three spent cartridges in the gun, Proffitt said.

More details are expected to emerge as a result of Dawson's autopsy and as investigators try to track down witnesses. Many scattered after the shooting in the 3100 block of Fremont Terrace South.

Dawson's family was distraught over the incident. They questioned the police version of events, denied that Javon had a gun, and demanded Nemeth be prosecuted.

"I think it was murder because of the circumstances of how the police officers told how he was shot," said Javon's father, David Dawson. "He was shot twice in the back."

"They took my son's…took his life," David Dawson said. "The St. Petersburg Police Department took my son's life."

As for Nemeth, Dawson would like to see the officer "get what he deserves."

The International People's Democratic Uhuru Movement gathered outside the police station today to protest the shooting as an example of police brutality, while administrators made available the officer's personnel file showing he has no prior history of excessive force.

"There has to be some justice here," said Uhuru leader Omali Yeshitela. "There is no rational explanation for a 17-year-old boy going to a so-called after-graduation party and now ending up in the morgue."

Among Yeshitela's cohorts were those holding signs with Dawson's picture on them with the words "Stop Police Murder." Others carried signs saying blood was on the hands of high-ranking St. Petersburg officials.

On Saturday night, roughly 250 people were outside the lodge about 10:45 p.m. when a man made a 911 call to police to complain of a loud party, a tape of the call says. "Do you see any weapons?" a dispatcher asked him. "Not so far," the caller replied.

When police arrived, they spent about five minutes clearing the street when there were reports of shots fired, and then Nemeth's controlled but slightly frantic voice comes over the radio saying he has a subject down and that he needs an ambulance. He then suggests how the ambulance should get to the scene.

After Dawson was shot, he ran a few feet, and then collapsed. Jennifer Bowen looked out a window at her home and saw him, facedown in her front yard. Police officers stood nearby.

"I was hysterical. I lost it," Bowen said. "I tried to call 911 and couldn't talk. My mom had to take the phone.

"I was screaming and crying. I thought, 'Oh, my God, this is somebody's child.' "

Canesha Newsome, who was at the party, said the group was mostly teenage boys and a few girls. The crowd grew and quickly spilled outside, where there was at least one fight. It was way too crowded, she said.

At first the party wasn't too disruptive, Bowen said. She was reading while her 12-year-old son and 11-year-old nephew played a video game shortly before 11 p.m. Then she heard the shots.

"They were, 'Pow. Pow. Pow.' Then, 'pow, pow, pow.' Then there was a loud shot. I thought that last shot was in my living room," she said.

The first series of shots came from the alley behind her house. The second series seemed to come from somewhere on the street in front of her house.

Gunshots are rare in the neighborhood of Palmetto Park with small, well-kept yards and houses, Bowen said.

"They brought this into our neighborhood. We didn't ask for this. It's hard to get over," she said.

Dawson lived at 1808 20th Ave. N. in the Woodlawn Park apartments, a block east of Interstate 275 and a few miles from where he died. It's a complex of small tan and brown quadraplexes.

Catrell Bacon, a neighbor who also knew him from school, called Dawson a class clown, a boy more interested in flirting than fighting.

"I don't think he deserved to die. I never seen him fight. Never seen him get mad," she said. "All you saw was him trying to flirt with girls." Dawson has no prior brushes with the law, police say.

Nemeth is a rookie officer, having finished his probationary period six months ago, police administrators say. A 2001 graduate of Northeast High School, he served four years with the Marine Corps, earning both rifle and pistol marksmanship badges, his personnel file shows.

His last evaluation, completed in December, says he knows how to keep his cool under pressure.

"He possesses good verbal defusion skills, allowing him to quickly de-escalate most situations," a supervisor wrote. "As a result, Officer Nemeth is able to minimize the necessity for the use of force in most situations. … He is able to adjust his tone and volume to suit his audience."

"He utilizes only the amount of force necessary to overcome the resistance encountered," the evaluation states.

Though he has used force previously – typically taking uncooperative suspects to the ground – he never has used his handgun before, his record shows. And no one has complained to internal affairs in the instances in which he used force, his personnel file shows.

The shooting is under investigation by the police department and the Pinellas-Pasco State Attorney's Office.

Tribune reporters Ray Reyes and Neil Johnson, and News Channel 8 reporter Rod Challenger contributed to this report. Reporter Stephen Thompson can be reached at (727) 451-2336 or spthompson@tampatrib.com.

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