Jacksonville, Florida

From Jacksonville.com of August 20, 2005

Minister wounds 2 in shootout

He agonizes over shooting brothers at Grand Park football field; their mother says, 'Tell him I am thankful.'

Sixty-three-year-old grandfather Joe Dixon clutched a Bible as he sat in his Jacksonville home Friday and, after a sleepless night, asked himself yet again:

"Why did I do this? Why did this happen? I'm a preacher. I'm a Christian. I try to do things right. I don't like to see people get hurt."

A short drive away, two brothers, one 17 and the other 18, were in hospital beds at Shands Jacksonville. One was fresh from the operating room, the other being prepped for the same treatment: surgery to implant a pin in his leg after police said a bullet from Dixon's gun tore into it Thursday.

Police arrested Dimitri Lamar Gauldin, 18, of the 4800 block of Walcott Avenue, and Devin Lavaughn Gauldin, 17, of the 4900 block of Campenella Drive, charging both with aggravated assault. The older brother also faces a second felony of firing a gun from a vehicle in public.

The shooting on the football field at Grand Park on Henrietta Street came as more than two dozen children practiced -- Dixon's 9-year-old grandson and the brothers' 11-year-old sibling among them.

After a pushing match that witnesses said involved the brothers and at least one football coach, police said the brothers took out guns and fired at an unidentified person with whom it's believed they wanted to settle a score.

The gunfire sent cheerleaders, football players, parents and coaches scrambling. Dixon himself left, helping his grandson into his vehicle while noticing the gunmen walking back to their black Crown Victoria just a few yards away.

Dixon, a Bethel Baptist Institutional Church preacher who has a concealed weapons permit, told his grandson to hit the floor of their Toyota Sequoia.

Then he made the choice he lived over and over Friday.

"I went toward their car and told them, 'You're not going anywhere,'" Dixon said Friday, recalling how he showed the teens his gun.

Then they started shooting, Dixon said, with one bullet hitting his vehicle.

So he returned fire, with a bullet finding its mark in Dimitri's leg, who fell out of the now-fleeing Crown Victoria.

Dixon said he made the man drop his gun before the car circled back.

But Dixon had time to reload and as Devin scooped his brother off the ground, the grandfather had words for the younger brother as he held them both at gunpoint.

"I told him, 'Both of you all are going to stay here until the police get here.'"

But Devin tried to grab the gun Dixon had made Dimitri toss away. So Dixon squeezed off another round, which struck Devin in the leg.

As sirens wailed in the distance, the Crown Victoria sped away, with, police believe, three other men inside.

(More)