By MELISSA NELSON
Associated Press Reporter
Police shot a National Guard soldier 16 times after he killed two sheriff's deputies at a gun range in April, but it was a self-inflicted gunshot wound that ended a chaotic, high-speed chase and shootout, investigators said Thursday.
Joshua Cartwright shot and killed Okaloosa County sheriff's deputies Burt Lopez and Warren "Skip" York, both 45, on April 25 as they tried to arrest him in the parking lot of rural gun range.
An investigative report released by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and State Attorney Bill Eddins on Thursday included recordings of dozens of 911 calls placed from the gun range, dashboard video footage of the frantic police chase and shootout and recordings of witness interviews.
The report concluded law officers who shot Cartwright were justified and that the case was closed.
Among the recordings was a heartrending call from a gun range employee who stayed on the line with a dispatcher for eight minutes as he watched the shooting then ran to the fallen deputies after Cartwright sped away.
"Oh my God, you'll need to get an ambulance out here in a heartbeat. He's shot three times - one, two three. Two to the chest and one to the stomach. The other deputy, he's done, he's shot in the face," the caller says before realizing the first deputy was also shot in the head.
The man then reports that York is still breathing.
"Come on buddy, stay with me buddy. Come on Skip, buddy, come one," he says.
Both deputies were taken by helicopter to a Pensacola hospital were they were pronounced dead that afternoon.
The incident was set in motion that morning when Cartwright's wife filed a domestic violence report after going to a hospital with injuries to her face and arm. The deputies went to the gun range because she told them Cartwright would be there.
The horrific scene that followed is captured in recordings of frantic 911 calls to dispatchers who appear at first not to grasp what a caller is trying to report, as they repeat the phrase "shooting at the gun range?"
"I don't know what's going right here at the gun range," one caller says. "Are they training out here? If they aren't then somebody is shooting at these law officers."
The dispatcher then cuts the woman off and attempts to transfer her to the sheriff's office.
A second caller tells a dispatcher, "We have two sheriff's officers here ma'am and they are involved in the shooting."
The dispatcher asks if anyone is injured and instructs the man to take cover.
According to autopsy reports, both deputies had four gunshot wounds. Both were wearing bulletproof vests.
The report states that Lopez used his stun gun on Cartwright, but Cartwright fell and immediately came up firing. Cartwright seized York's gun and used it to shoot Lopez in the head, investigators said. York tried to follow Cartwright into his truck, when the soldier shot him in the head.
Officers from surrounding areas followed Cartwright at speeds up to 80 mph into neighboring Walton County. He repeatedly swerved around road spikes during the 15-mile chase.
A female gun range customer also followed Cartwright and called dispatchers from her cell phone. A dispatcher encouraged her to keep an eye on him but not to put herself in danger.
The case ended when a gunshot caused Cartwright to flip his truck. He began firing, using the truck as cover. His 11-second gunbattle with officers ended when he shot himself in the head with his own revolver, the investigative report found.
Cartwright was hit twice in his torso, had numerous leg wounds and was hit on his arms and other parts of his body, his autopsy report showed. He also broke several bones in the crash.
According to the report, Cartwright, 28, joined the Army National Guard after Sept. 11, 2001. He washed out of Counter Intelligence training at Fort Huachuaca, Ariz., and attended light mechanic school at Fort Jackson, S.C., before joining the National Guard Unit in Crestview.
The report says Cartwright had been scheduled to be deployed but was "rendered ineligible" after a domestic violence arrest in November. He was then placed on restriction to handle military weapons. He was told that if he was convicted of domestic violence he would terminated from the guard. The court case, however, was resolved.
Family members said Cartwright believed president Obama was anti-American. The day before his death, Cartwright had gotten a tattoo on right arm that read "Don't tread on me/Liberty or death."
The shootings were the latest in a string of problems for the troubled sheriff's office.
Another deputy died in July after he was shot by a suicidal man who had barricaded himself in a home.
The department's former sheriff, Charlie Morris, reported to federal prison this month after pleading guilty to federal charges involving taking money from Homeland Security and Department of Justice Grants in a complicated employee bonus kickback scheme.
Other former department employees have been charged by state officials with racketeering in the case.
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