Jacksonville sheriff: 'Very, very fortunate' following police shooting of armed suspect

A Jacksonville sheriff's officer came face to face with an armed robbery suspect wanted for questioning in a murder and shot him as the man advanced on him, the Sheriff's Office said Wednesday night.

“We are very, very fortunate tonight," Sheriff T.K. Waters said. "A police officer could have been killed. It wasn’t as simple as him pointing a gun at him. There’s a lot more to it. That’s just a part of it."

He said the two were "very, very close, probably as close as you and I are, if not a little closer," when the officer attempted to detain the suspect.

"We’re just happy that our police officer is OK because it could have been a very, very bad situation," Waters said at the scene in the 8400 block of Blanding Boulevard. "I have to stress that we are fortunate tonight that we are not dealing with a critically injured police officer, but we are dealing with a critically injured bad guy, and that’s what he is.”

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Chief Alan Parker said the Sheriff’s Office received information about a vehicle involved in some Lake County armed robberies and that about 6:30 p.m. an officer came across a white pickup truck at matching the description. As he was inspecting the vehicle, he saw a man walking his dog and asked if that was his vehicle. The man said yes and the officer said to stay there. But he soon tried to push past him and get into the vehicle. The officer got a hold of him, but the suspect was able to get into the vehicle.

“He got into the front of vehicle," Parker said, and "turned around outside. He had a gun in his hand, advanced on the officer. The officer pulled his weapon and fired it a few times and struck the suspect and he was down. The suspect stayed on the ground. He dropped the gun at that time.”

He was shot in the chest and is in stable condition, Parker said.

The Sheriff's Office identified him as Brenton Albert Paquin, 37, and said he is believed to be involved in two armed robberies outside of Orlando and also is a person possibly connected in some way to a murder in Vermont where he's from. No other details were released about those crimes Wednesday night. Paquin was absentee-booked on a charge of attempted murder of a law enforcement officer.

The officer is Joshua Collier, about a nine-year Sheriff's Office veteran involved in his first shooting, the Sheriff's Office said.

"Don’t come to Jacksonville to commit robberies because we’re going to take action," Waters warned. "... So don't do it here, because we just don't put up with that stuff."

This marks the fourth Jacksonville police shooting this year, one of which was fatal. Last year at this time there were eight, six of which were fatal, according to Times-Union records.

Three officers were recently shot during similar confrontations, all narrowly surviving.

Officer down: Three Jacksonville sheriff's officers have been shot this year. Here's what we know .

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Jacksonville sheriff: 'Very, very fortunate' following police shooting of armed suspect