A Florida mother discovered an 18-year-old man having an “inappropriate text relationship’ with her 13-year-old daughter and set up a meeting with him herself, which led to the man being shot by police.
Cerry Banks was hospitalized in stable condition and charged with two counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, two counts of lewd/lascivious conduct, and single counts of unlawful use of a two-way communication device and traveling to meet after using a computer to seduce/solicit/lure a child, First Coast News reported.
Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office Chief of Investigations Alan Parker said the girl’s mother discovered the texting relationship between Banks and her daughter and began talking to him herself, eventually setting up a meeting at a local fast food restaurant where she intended to “meet him and confront him.”
She arrived at a restaurant with both the 13-year-old girl and her 11-year-old son.
They show up to talk to the suspect, and he confronts them with a pistol in his waistband, lifts it and says, ‘When you hear the shots tonight, you’ll know what’s up,’” Parker said. “So, the mother grabbed the kids, they went inside the Popeyes. The suspect walked around the back of the business at that point.”
The mother called 911 to report the situation. An arriving officer found Banks still standing behind the restaurant, but he fled when the officer confronted him. The officer pursued and saw Banks pull out his gun as he rounded a corner. The officer called out for him to drop the weapon and opened fire. Banks continued to flee, but did drop the weapon.
Officers eventually found him hiding in a drainage culvert and took him to the hospital.
“We’d absolutely love to handle every situation, but this is a mother who’s concerned about her daughter,” Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters said during the press conference. “So, I get it, I understand. But, I would say that in most in cases, in situations like that, call us and let us come out and deal with the situation, so it doesn’t unfold like this.”
Banks’s bond is set at $700,000.
