A man released from prison on close supervision in an attempted murder case earlier this year was shot by a Tampa Police officer after he crashes car and flees.<\/p>\n
According to police, shortly after 3 a.m., Monday, an officer attempted to stop a vehicle for an expired license plate and seatbelt violation. The officer initially attempted to stop the vehicle at the intersection of Hillsborough Avenue and N. Armenia.<\/p>\n
However, instead of stopping, police said the driver fled from the scene. The officer did not follow the vehicle, instead, he called the incident in and a Tampa Police helicopter followed the car from the air.<\/p>\n
When the driver, later identified as Edward Bernard Thomas<\/strong>, (who turned 26 today), reached the corner of Coolidge and Hamilton Avenue, the Dodge Challenger crashed into a traffic sign.<\/p>\n Thomas is alleged to have jumped from the vehicle and ran into a wooded area. Officers established a perimeter and a K-9 unit was sent into the woods. As Thomas<\/strong> came out of the woods, the officers allegedly ordered him to show his hands.<\/p>\n When Thomas<\/strong> failed to comply with the commands and the \u201cofficer saw what he thought was a weapon, he shot the suspect.\u201d Thomas was transported to St. Joseph\u2019s Hospital, where he was being treated for a single gunshot. He was listed in stable condition.<\/p>\n Police said Thomas<\/strong> said he fled because he did not want to go back to prison.<\/p>\n Thomas<\/strong> was arrested in June 2007, and charged with being a felon in possession of a firearm, discharging a firearm, and attempted second-degree murder.<\/p>\n Hillsborough County Judge J. D. Lopez<\/strong> sentenced Thomas<\/strong> to five years in prison in October 2008. Thomas<\/strong> was released from prison under close supervision on May 29, 2012.<\/p>\n The officer involved in the shooting has been placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of the investigation.<\/p>\n No charges have been filed against Thomas<\/strong>, however, the investigation is continuing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A man released from prison on close supervision in an attempted murder case earlier this year was shot by a Tampa Police officer after he crashes car and flees. According to police, shortly after 3 a.m., Monday, an officer attempted to stop a vehicle for an expired license plate and seatbelt violation. The officer initially […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":210,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","pmpro-has-access"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17161","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/210"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17161"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17161\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}