'I had no choice. I had to shoot him,' Minerva Avenue man says in 911 call.
The victim in an early morning shooting Saturday has been identified as 30-year-old Jervon King.
Bob Ball, lead investigator for the Richland County Coroner's Office, said King died at the scene of the shooting, which occurred at 29 Minerva Ave. at 4:11 a.m.
According to a news release from the Mansfield Police Department, King was found inside a bedroom. He had been shot one time, the release said.
The suspected shooter, listed on a police report as living at the Minerva Avenue address, was arrested on an unrelated felony warrant. He made a call to Mansfield police after the shooting.
The News Journal obtained a recording of the call from the 911 dispatch center.
"Somebody's dying on Minerva," the man told the police dispatcher.
"Why do you think he's dying?" the dispatcher asked the caller.
"He got shot," he replied. "He kept pulling a knife on me."
The caller repeated the statement and elaborated.
"He pulled a knife on me," the man said. "Somebody's life was in danger. I ain't going to lie. I had no choice. I had to shoot him."
The dispatcher asked him if the gun was put away, to which he answered it was.
After the man identified himself and King, saying the 30-year-old was his "little cousin," the dispatcher asked the caller if he had a clean towel.
"Where is he shot? On his body?" she asked.
"I don't know. I just shot," he said.
"Are you able to get a compress to put on the wound?" the dispatcher asked.
The caller replied, "I'm not touching anything."
She told him to stand and put his arms up to show arriving officers that he was no longer armed.
Mansfield police Capt. Randy Carver said a decision has not been made on possible charges.
"We're still working through that right now," he said. "Where this happened on the weekend, we did talk to prosecutors and will confer with them again today (Monday)."
Anyone with information about the investigation is asked to call police Detective Richard Clapp at 419-755-9470.
mcaudill@gannett.com
419-521-7219
X (formerly Twitter): @MarkCau32059251
This article originally appeared on Mansfield News Journal: Minerva Ave. shooting victim identified, 911 caller says 'I had no choice'
