Guard who shot gunman back to work as Santa

Associated Press

TALLAHASSEE, Fla.

The security chief with the white beard and hair credited with helping save the lives of several school-board members already was well-known in his Panama City community as “Salvage Santa.”

Mike Jones, a former police officer, shot and wounded 56-year-old Clay Duke on Tuesday after the gunman began firing at members of the Bay County School Board. Jones had just arrived at the building when Duke interrupted the meeting. After being hit several times, Duke shot himself in the head.

“I wasn’t there five minutes and I was in a gunfight,” Jones, 57, said at a news conference. “They said the gunbattle lasted 13 seconds, but it seemed like it was forever.”

Now, the retired detective said he wants to forget the showdown and get back to his efforts to provide refurbished Christmas gifts for needy children.

“He’s a genuinely good, good guy,” said Sgt. Jeff Becker, spokesman for the Panama City Police Department. “You need something, you call Mike Jones.”

Jones said he was supposed to be on vacation but was in the building to be available to answer some questions during the meeting.

Duke had sat with the rest of the audience for most of the meeting. In the midst of a board discussion, he rose, walked to the front of the room and drew a circle with a V over it on the wall. He then turned with a handgun and ordered everyone from the room except the men on the school board.

He complained about taxes and that his teacher wife had been fired earlier in the year. After an exchange with Bay County Superintendent Bill Husfelt, who pleaded with him not to shoot, Duke fired several times before Jones ran in and shot him in the back. Duke then killed himself.

Afterward, the board consoled a shaken Jones who said he had never shot anyone before, despite being an investigator for the Panama City Police Department.

On Thursday, he got a $3,500 donation from a local pizza firm to buy gifts for needy kids.

Jones is widely admired in Bay County for his generosity and the “Salvage Santa” program he began nearly three decades ago. He personally refurbishes bicycles and persuades merchants to donate toys to children who would otherwise be without at Christmas.