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An Escambia County deputy was fighting for his life late Friday, after a close-range gunfight with a Mississippi man in the living room of a suburban Pensacola home.
Deputy Jeremy Cassidy underwent surgery Friday afternoon and again Friday night at Sacred Heart Hospital. He was in critical condition.
Two of his fellow deputies also were wounded when they responded to a domestic violence call at 8083 Baywind Cricle, off Scenic Highway, north of Interstate 10. Deputies Chad Brown and Sam Parker were treated and released from Sacred Heart on Friday afternoon.
Philip Martin Monier, 47, of Horn Lake, Miss., opened fire on the deputies immediately after they entered the house, Sheriff David Morgan said. Injured by return fire, he was in fair condition at Baptist Hospital on Friday night.
Monier faces multiple charges, including home invasion, domestic violence and assault with a deadly weapon.
Also wounded by multiple gunshots was Jackie Rosenbloom, 45, who was in the home and is believed to be Monier’s ex-girlfriend or wife. She was in fair condition at Sacred Heart.
Morgan described harrowing events that began with a desperate 911 call from Rosenbloom that a man was trying to kick in her front door.
Before the siege ended, Monier had dragged Rosenbloom into the bathroom and turned on the bath water. Soon, the house was flooded in water and blood, the sheriff said.
Rosenbloom was carried from the house by Sgt. Ted Roy after she crawled from the bathroom where she’d been barricaded with Monier. Roy said it appeared she had been shot in both legs.
“She was so darned bloody and scared,” Morgan said. “She was in excruciating pain.”
Morgan called Deputy Josh Hendershott “a hero.” He said Hendershott entered the home after hearing the shots involving the three deputies, without knowing where the gunman was located, and pulled Cassidy outside.
The sheriff said Monier “looked like a biker” with a bandanna around his head.
“He had a do-rag. He was heavy-set,” he said. “He was unkempt.”
Monier has a criminal record in Mississippi and Tennessee, according to court records.
In 1993, he was sentenced to six years in prison for drug charges in Shelby County, Tenn. And in 2006, he was charged with possession of a firearm by a convicted felon in DeSoto County, Miss. He was sentenced to 33 days in prison.
Tension accelerates
Rosenbloom’s call that the assailant was kicking in the door came in at 10:06 a.m.
Deputies arrived at 10:17, and at 10:22, when they heard screaming inside, they forced their way into the home.
At 10:27, a call came into dispatch that an officer was down. Less then a minute later, the call came that multiple officers were down. And a minute later, the SWAT team was dispatched.
Morgan said Monier was standing behind Rosenbloom with his hand on her shoulder, using her as a shield, when deputies entered. He began firing right away.
“They, in an attempt to defend themselves, drew their weapons and returned fire,” Morgan said.
Morgan said all the shooting happened in the front room.
After the shots, Monier retreated into the bathroom, still using Rosenbloom as a shield. He then held Rosenbloom hostage in the bathtub.
By that time, the SWAT team was in place.
At 11:03, a SWAT negotiator talked Monier out of the bathroom. He tossed his gun in the toilet.
“Once he dropped the gun, we just rushed him,” Roy said.
Morgan said he was not positive of the relationship between Monier and Rosenbloom.
“We assume it was husband/wife, girlfriend/boyfriend,” he said. “That sort of relationship that had been broken off, and there was conflict between the two.”
He said no one else was in the house.
Morgan would not discuss how many shots were fired or where they landed, saying those matters are under investigation by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. He could not say whether any of the deputies’ bullets hit Rosenbloom. He said one deputy was shot under his protective vest.
Quick response
The shooting prompted law enforcement officers in the two-county area to race to the scene.
A staging area was set up at the BP station near Scenic Highway and Northpointe Parkway.
The road in front of the station was blocked off and quickly filled up with at least 40 law enforcement and SWAT vehicles.
Along with the Sheriff’s Department, the Pensacola Police Department, the FDLE, the FBI and the Florida Highway Patrol responded. Chrystal Sigler of Pace looked on from the parking lot at the BP station.
Sigler said she was not surprised to hear that a shooting and hostage situation happened in Pensacola.
“It used to be shocking, but not anymore,” she said.
Morgan said the FDLE is now conducting an investigation into the shooting, as is routine in officer-involved shootings.
Friday’s shootings brings to five the number of Escambia deputies shot or shot at in the last month.
“We live in a violent world and a violent society,” Morgan said. “Violence is down, but the flagrant use of firearms has been up.”
News Journal reporter Kris Wernowsky contributed to this story.
SHOOTING SCENE: Pictures from the scene where three deputies and a hostage were shot.
Sheriff David Morgan said in a news conference that the incident stemmed from an apparent domestic violence incident.
Morgan said Monier fired at deputies when they responded to the house.
Deputies returned fire and Monier took Rosenbloom hostage and retreated into the bathroom.
At 11:03, after a brief negotiation, a hostage negotiator convinced the suspect to put his gun down and SWAT entered the bathroom, secured the woman and arrested Monier.
Neighbors who live immediately next door to the house were escorted by officers to another neighbor's house.
Baybrook resident John LeGrand, who lives two houses away, said he went to take his dogs out for a walk at about 10 a.m. this morning when he saw police cars pulling up.
"One, two, three. They started pulling up like crazy."
LeGrand asked an officer what was going on, and the officer told him it was a home invasion.
LeGrand said the officers began walking down the street up to the house with their guns out.
He saw a young girl sitting in the driveway of the house with a baby. She then came running down the street with the baby saying, "Oh God, oh God, this is terrible."
LeGrand asked the girl what was wrong and she said, "My mother's boyfriend is in the house, and he's threatening to kill everyone." He asked if he could help the girl, but she was too hysterical. A nearby law enforcement officer put the girl and the baby into his patrol car.
By this time, LeGrand said 25 to 30 law enforcement cars were piling up in the street.
"I just couldn't count them anymore," he said. "Everyone was getting out with their guns drawn."
Gov. Charlie Crist, who was in town for a campaign event, visited the wounded deputies at the hospital.
Baybrook Homeowners Association President Stuart Brown has lived in the Baybrook subdivision for eight years. Brown says there has been nothing more than occasional car and home break-ins in the neighborhood.
"Things like that just don't happen in this neighborhood," he said.
There are about 130 lots in the subdivision and about 10 percent of the homes are rentals, he said. He didn't know the people who live in the house.
Today's shootings brings to five the number of Escambia deputies shot or shot at in the last month.
On Sept. 29, a deputy was shot at the Motel 6 on Pensacola Boulevard while investigating a missing persons complaint. He was treated and released two days later.
On Oct. 14, a deputy was fired at on a porch in Brownsville. He did not return fire. The woman who shot at him was taken into custody.
