UCF officer shot dead before Marshall game
Sean Lavin
Issue date: 9/26/05 Section: News
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UCF Police spokesman Sgt. Troy Williamson confirmed that another person was shot during the altercation, which occurred about an hour before the 6 p.m. game.
Mario Jenkins, 29, who was dressed in plain clothes and patrolling for underage drinkers in the parking lots, died after being shot in the back by Orlando Officer Dennis Smith.
Witnesses said Jenkins had just fired shots into the air to stop an altercation with fans from escalating.
Nearby tailgaters crawled under vehicles for cover.
"People starting running," senior Brittany Resmann said. "I didn't know what was going on. All of these cops starting running around with guns out.
"People were crying everywhere," Resmann said, adding that "there was a cop crying on the ground next to me right after it happened."
Some witnesses reported seeing Jenkins fire into the air. Rusty McCormick, a recent UCF alumnus, said he had seen Jenkins shoot UCF student Mike Young, his former roommate.
"Mike Young just came to see what was going on, and he walked up on the back of an undercover cop," McCormick said, while stressing that "[Young] didn't know he was an undercover cop."
When Young put his hand on Jenkins' shoulder, Jenkins "just turned around and shot him," McCormick said.
McCormick said that Smith then shot Jenkins "three times - boom, boom, boom - right in the back."
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is investigating the double shooting but would not comment on details leading up to the shooting.
"FDLE is making a full investigation to figure out exactly what happened with all the stories," Williamson said. "In the next couple months, they'll come to a conclusion of what happened."
Williamson said eyewitness accounts will have to be verified, especially since so many people in the area may have been intoxicated.
Just after the shooting, "people were throwing beer bottles and cans," Williamson said. "It was a melee."
Jenkins likely died almost immediately, said Neal Rodgers, a physician at Orlando Regional Medical Center who was nearby and tried to resuscitate Jenkins with CPR.
Rodgers said Jenkins had no pulse and was not breathing by the time he reached him, just seconds after the shots were fired.