Neutral colored condominiums with white trim line Black Cherry Drive in northern Johns County. The yards are well-manicured within this gated community, located between I-95 and US1 just south of Race Track Road.
Neighbors say this is a normally quiet neighborhood, but that tranquility was shattered late Sunday night when a St. Johns Sheriff's Deputy shot and killed a man.
The St. Johns Sheriff’s Office says Deputy Christina Dobbs fatally shot and killed 51-year-old Daniel Torres and they say it went down like this:
Dobbs and another deputy approached Torres while he was trying to break into his estranged wife’s home. Torres turned towards the deputies while holding a knife, then refused to obey their orders. SJSO said that is what forced Dobbs to fire her weapon. A knife was recovered as the scene.
The police report WOKV obtained says Torres cut the screen of the front window to try to get inside his wife’s home in the Crossings at Cypress Trace subdivision. His wife was not home, but another woman was inside at the time of the incident. WOKV is told she grabbed her child and ran out the back door.
Dobbs has worked for the sheriff’s office since 2007 and has been put on administrative leave, which is standard after a deputy-involved shooting.
Torres and his wife have been separated since 2008.
Neighbor Debra Curtis has lived in the area for several years. “We immediately went to the window and (saw) all the cops and ambulances coming in,” Curtis said while taking her dog for a walk. She said she heard five gun shots but did not know the couple involved.
“This is just another example that things like this can happen anywhere,” another neighbor said as he headed to work.
The neighbor living next to the estranged wife said deputies have been called to the home several times in the past.
