YULEE, Fla. – Patrick McDowell said, “I’m not stopping; I’m not going to jail,” as Nassau County Deputy Josh Moyers tried to pull him over south of Callahan one week ago, according to a woman with him in the stolen van. When the woman urged him to stop, she said he told her: “It’s either me or him.”
The latest information comes from the arrest affidavit of McDowell, charging him first-degree murder in Moyers’ death
When the van finally stopped on Sandy Ford Road, off U.S. 301, and Moyers approached the van asking for a driver’s ID, she said McDowell reached behind his seat and pulled a gun. Sheriff Bill Leeper said the gunman shot Moyers in the face, then again in the back as the deputy fell to the ground.
Moyers died two days later.
McDowell sped away and then abandoned the van. According to the woman with him in the van, they hid under a trailer until he let her go. Once she got far enough away, she called 911.
McDowell evaded capture until Tuesday when deputies found him hiding at a youth ballpark on River Road -- about 2 miles from where Moyer was shot. Suffering from gunshots wound from an encounter with an officer hours after the original traffic stop and bites from a K9, McDowell was hospitalized until Thursday. He was booked into the Nassau County jail Thursday evening and transferred almost immediately to the Duval County jail, records show.
McDowell was scheduled to appear Friday before a Nassau County judge on charges of murder and aggravated battery of a police dog. A judge agreed to waive McDowell’s first appearance, saying his next court date will be Oct. 21 for arraignment on the charges.
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Law enforcement officers continued their search for any additional evidence in the investigation into Moyers’ killing, and Leeper said Thursday that a gun was found during the search but that it wasn’t immediately clear if it was related to Moyers’ death.