An Orlando Police Department officer who sparked nationwide controversy after arresting two 6-year-olds in 2019 was shot and killed New Year’s Day in an apparent family dispute, police say.
Dennis Turner, 64, was found by Orlando police officers at around 7 p.m. Thursday suffering from an apparent gunshot wound, according to an OPD news release. The officers were responding to a reported shooting on Kozart Street near Carver Middle School.
Turner was taken to Orlando Regional Medical Center, where he died from his injuries. The release said he served as an officer with OPD for 23 years before retiring in 2018. He then joined OPD’s reserve unit, which is made up of retired OPD officers who sign up to work certain extra-duty assignments.
The suspect in Turner’s death, 58-year-old Jeffery London, was arrested on charges of first-degree murder and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. He fled the scene but was apprehended after coordination with law enforcement in Polk and Highlands counties, according to the release.
OPD said current information indicates the shooting stemmed from a family dispute. No other information was included in the release.
Turner generated national controversy in 2019 when he arrested two 6-year-old students on misdemeanor battery charges while serving as a school resource officer at the Lucious & Emma Nixon Academy charter school on Mercy Drive. He was then fired from his reserve role.
Orlando’s police chief at the time, Orlando Rolón, said the arrests made him “sick to [his] stomach.” He apologized to the children and their families.
“I can only imagine how traumatic this was for everyone involved,” he said at a press conference following the arrests.
Turner was disciplined seven times during his 23-year tenure at OPD and was also the subject of 16 citizen complaints during that time, most of which did not rise to the level of a formal Internal Affairs investigation or result in discipline.
Records show his disciplinary history includes an incident in which he stunned a trespassing suspect with a Taser five times and an allegation of racial profiling.