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Local and state law enforcement officers investigate a fatal shooting Sunday in Crescent City. -
Local and state law enforcement officers investigate a fatal shooting Sunday in Crescent City.
CRESCENT CITY – City, county and state law enforcement officials spent Sunday investigating the fatal shooting of a man who was the victim of the first Putnam County homicide of the year – and Crescent City's first homicide in nearly a decade.
Authorities said Crescent City officials and members of the Putnam County Sheriff's Office arrived at the corner of Florida Avenue and Main Street at 1:06 p.m. Sunday, five minutes after dispatchers first received calls about the shooting.
Despite the quick response time, 28-year-old Tykey Nixon died at the scene.
"When the officers from Crescent City Police Department and deputies from the sheriff's office arrived, we located a deceased male on the scene from an apparent homicide," sheriff's office Col. Joe Wells said at a press conference hours after the shooting. "We do not know exactly what led up to the incident itself. What we know is when we arrived on scene, we were able to work very closely with the Crescent City Police Department at their request."
Wells and Mark Carman, Crescent City's chief of police, said the location where Nixon was shot is a popular hangout spot for the city's residents.
A suspect was apprehended an hour and two minutes after law enforcement arrived at the scene, Carman and Wells said. As of 6 p.m. Sunday, the suspect was "in custody" and "not free to leave" the sheriff's office, but he had not been formally arrested, Wells said.
"We got a call from a female saying the person of interest was going to meet us at the Pomona Park Fire Station and was going to turn himself in," Carman said.
However, when Wells and other deputies arrived in Pomona Park to meet the suspect, they had to apprehend him from a vehicle he entered, possibly to flee the scene, Carman and Wells told reporters.
Nixon's death is a shock to Crescent City, which has not had a homicide in eight years, Carman said. With a coverage area of about 2 square miles, police officers want to be prepared for the worst although they hope the worst never happens, Carman acknowledged.
"We're not accustomed to homicides, nor do we want to be," he said. "It's something you're always worried would happen.
"I've been (in law enforcement) a long time, probably over 30 years. I've never seen such cooperation or assistance from a sheriff's office to a small department as I've gotten from Col. Wells. I cannot thank the sheriff or Col. Wells enough."
As law enforcement officials worked into the night on Sunday, Wells said they would continue to examine the scene, question witnesses and rely on photo lineups to make an arrest to provide some sort of relief to the South Putnam community.
"We are interviewing that suspect, processing a scene here and also processing a vehicle that may be associated with the case," Wells said. "... As part of our investigation, we will likely be seeking witnesses that can identify the suspect through photo lineups. So we obviously don't want to taint those photo lineups (by releasing the suspect's name too early)."