NASSAU COUNTY, Fla. – The Nassau County Sheriff’s Office on Monday afternoon held a news conference to discuss two arrests that happened in recent days.
On Friday, the Sheriff’s Office said a report came in for an armed car-jacking in the parking lot of Harris Teeter in Fernandina Beach. Two children were alone inside that vehicle at the time.
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On Sunday, a woman was arrested and accused of shooting her boyfriend in the face during a domestic dispute in Hilliard.
According to an arrest report involving the suspected carjacking, a woman parked her car outside the store and left her children in the car before she walked inside to get bottled water. While inside, she got a call from her teenage son who said the vehicle’s alarm was going off. When she got outside, she saw a man, later identified as Michael Hooper, sitting in the driver’s seat.
The teen, trying to protect his sister, got the guy in a headlock, according to deputies, before Hooper pulled out a .45 caliber handgun and fired a shot, which struck a nearby light pole. He then ran off, they said.
The kids got out of the car without being harmed. Hooper, a 31-year-old employee of Harris Teeter, turned himself in Saturday morning.
He told Nassau investigators he’d blacked out and thought the teen was trying to steal the car. He’s charged with armed carjacking and aggravated assault with a firearm.
In the case involving the woman accused of shooting her boyfriend, Amber Mencner faces charges of attempted murder and tampering with evidence.
Deputies started investigating after a man said he was asleep in the front seat of his vehicle in front of a home when he woke up and realized he had been shot. He said Mencner was mad at him over a disagreement over ownership of the truck the two purchased together.
