By By Adam Prestridge
The Escambia County Sheriff's Office will begin an internal investigation Monday to ensure all policies and procedures were properly followed by the two deputies involved in a the shooting of an Atmore man on June 12.
Escambia County transportation officer Jimmy Payne shot Dayshawn Dixon, 21, of Atmore in the neck while attempting to serve an order to commit his brother, 19-year-old Derrick Dixon. Since, the investigation has been handed over to the Alabama Bureau of Investigation, but Escambia County chief deputy John Gleaton said Friday afternoon that he will begin an internal investigation this week.
"The Sheriff's Office's investigation is to determine what, if anything, could be changed policy-wise to prevent something like this from happening in the future," Gleaton said. "The Alabama Bureau of Investigation's investigation is to determine if there was any criminal misconduct."
According to sheriff Grover Smith, deputy Bruce Shue and Payne went to the Dixon home located on Fourth Street to serve a civil court order that had been signed in Escambia County Probate Court by the man's moth er. Smith said Dayshawn Dixon became involved in the altercation and threatened officers with a screwdriver. Officers ordered Dixon to stand down, but he refused. That's when Payne shot the oldest brother.
"The officer's statement to me was that they used what they thought was very minimum force, which they believed was necessary to protect their own lives," Smith said in an interview last week. "We're going to keep an open mind and wait on the ABI to complete their investigation. We want to know all the facts and we are confident that the ABI will do a thorough job."
Gleaton said no results have been provided by ABI pertaining to its investigation.
"We have not received any information from the ABI on the investigation," he said. "We will start conducting our own investigation on Monday."
Gleaton said the internal investigation must begin before ABI completes theirs for fear one could influence the other.
"We can't wait until they finish their investigation to start ours, obviously," Gleaton said. "Since I'm leading the internal investigation I can't comment on our findings until it is concluded."
Dayshawn Dixon was transported to Atmore Community Hospital following the shooting and later transported to Baptist Hospital in Pensacola, Fla. by LifeFlight. Although his condition was critical, according to hospital officials last week, he had been moved to a private room.
"We don't want anything to happen to our deputies or to the public," Gleaton said. "We want to make sure we have interaction with the public. We have an obligation to protect and serve the public, not to cause them harm. We want to make sure that we are doing everything that we can to provide the citizens of Escambia County, Alabama with the best law enforcement protection that we can possibly provide."