A woman confronted an 18-year-old man at a restaurant after finding that he had been exchanging text messages with her 13-year-old daughter, which led to a police confrontation and the suspect being shot multiple times. 

The Florida mother, upon learning the night before about the “inappropriate text relationship” with her child, used her daughter’s phone to set up a rendezvous, according to the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office. The mother, pretending to be her daughter, continued the text conversation with the 18-year-old who was later revealed to be Cerry Banks, arranging a meeting with him the following morning at a local Popeyes restaurant.

In an odd move, the mother brought along her daughter and 11-year-old son to the restaurant on Nov. 11 while, according to Chief of Investigations Alan Parker, Banks still thought he was texting with her daughter. What happened next, however, is a stark reminder that confrontations like this have the potential to take dark turns. During the confrontation outside the restaurant, Banks brandished a firearm he had concealed in his waistband, telling the mother, “When you hear the shots tonight, you know what’s up,” according to police.

That’s when Mom went inside to call the authorities, something perhaps she should have done before arriving for the confrontation. Police report they responded 30 minutes later, seemingly a lifetime in a situation like this, while Banks in another odd move continued to hang around outside Popeyes. When an officer approached the man, all the tough talk dissipated quickly as the suspect decided he’d rather be a track star. While in a foot pursuit, Banks is accused of pulling out the gun, which the officer ordered him to drop. It is unclear if he had pulled the firearm to engage the officer or if he was going to try to dispose of the evidence. 

The officer fired at and hit Banks who ultimately dropped the gun, but despite being injured continued running. At some point, the officer lost sight of Banks, according to Parker, but units eventually found him hiding in a drainage culvert. According to authorities, Banks received medical assistance for multiple gunshot wounds at the scene and was transported to a local hospital.

Jail records reveal that Banks has been charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, lewd and lascivious conduct by an offender over 18 against a victim less than 16, unlawful use of a two-way communication device and traveling to meet after using a computer to seduce/solicit/lure a child. 

Sheriff T.K. Waters has asked parents to notify law enforcement if they suspect their child is the victim of a crime, but stated he doesn’t blame the mom for the confrontation, taking a page right out of Chris Hansen’s To Catch A Predator on Dateline NBC. At the end of the day, this one turned out as it should have, with a pedophile receiving some well-needed ventilation with no harm to the good guys. Things could have gone differently, however, and while I applaud the mother’s resolute courage, it is advisable to play it safe and alert the authorities whenever possible in these situations.  

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27 COMMENTS

  2. “Banks brandished a firearm he had concealed in his waistband.”

    Was this another case of getting shot because he was too cheap to get a proper holster? Maybe he pulled the gun out so it wouldn’t fall out as he ran away.

    • Nah. He’s done for, politically. It would not bother me any but he has too many enemies… Just my objective opinion.

      • There STILL are no charges against Matt Gaetz for all the accusations that have been made by liberals and their “unnamed witnesses”. Hell, they even brought charges against Trump for things that were not even crimes. Is this just the slippery slope getting slipperier and sloperier?

        No charges, no due process. As far as I’m concerned, the man is neither guilty nor suspected of any crime.

        Bring charges, bring evidence, and let’s have a trial. Otherwise, let’s all shut our yaps and get on with the really important things we all have going on.

        • DOJ investigated, they found nothing and deemed the so called ‘victim’ and ‘witnesses ‘not creditable’ and closed the investigation.

          The ethics committee investigating since 2021 never levied any ‘charges’.

          Basically background: Gaetz’s had some acquaintance ties to Joel Greenberg, a (now) former Seminole County tax collector. Its not usual for politicians to have such acquaintances in their home states. Greenberg pleaded guilty to sex trafficking and other charges in 2021 and admitted to paying women for sex, including the minor in question, and introducing her to other men.

          Greenberg had asked Gaetz about helping him get some sort of ‘political favoritism’ kind of thing, Gaetz said “nope” and they had a parting of the ways. Greenberg was not a happy camper about it, and before ya know it these women involved in the sex trafficking start making these allegations about Gaetz.

          To date, there has been no actual evidence bought forth that shows Gaetz actually did that alledged. Without a court case showing him to have committed that alleged, Gaetz is innocent and he has always maintained he did not do as alledged.

          Then in the summer of 2023, the ethics committee provided an update on its ongoing investigation, revealing that it was now looking into additional allegations against Gaetz, including accusations of illicit drug use, accepting improper gifts, and potentially obstructing government investigations into his conduct. The Ethics Committee also explored whether Gaetz had been involved in creating a hostile work environment for staff and whether his behavior violated House rules on sexual harassment and personal conduct.

          To date they have not bought any charges or revealed evidence of wrong doing. And actually their investigation ended when Gaetz resigned, because its not legal for them to investigate any longer because he is no longer a member of congress nor can they bring any ‘charges’ against him for ‘ethics’ violations.

          So, overall, so far …. lots of innuendo and allegations and implying, and lots of people saying this or that, but no actionable evidence.

          Gaetz has always maintained that he did not do as alleged for any of this. There’s been no charges of any kind. There has not been an investigation from the Biden DOJ and as much as the dems hate Gaetz ya would think the Biden DOJ would try to do something to bring charges if such was actionable ’cause ya know how they like to make mountains out of mole hills so i’m pretty sure if there was even a mole hill here they would have jumped on it. And actually there are zero investigations running for any of these allegations.

          Gaetz has always maintained his innocence … no charges, no investigation, so called ‘victim’ and witnesses not creditable … there’s a good chance that Gaetz is actually innocent. But, time will tell.

          • In 2023 there was Republican senator Mullin (who hates Gaetz) who told CNN that Gaetz showed sexually explicit photos and videos of underage women he slept with to other lawmakers. “We had all seen the videos he was showing on the House floor…of the girls that he had slept with,” Mullin said. “He’d brag about how he would crush ED medicine and chase it with an energy drink so he could go all night.”

            That was investigated and it turned out to be a lie. Aside from the ethics committee, there have been other allegations investigated. There are a lot of people in congress that do not like Gaetz, republican and democrat alike. Yet for every investigation Gaetz has been exonerated.

            • As long as it’s not about ho-mo-sex-ual s-ex the accused is presume guilty.

              The Libertarians Liberals and the Left, seem very interested in making sure “a man’s penis is allowed in the girls bathroom, changing room, and the womans shower.

            • As long as it’s not about h.o-mo.-se.x-ua.l s-ex the accused is presume guilty.

              The Libertarians Liberals and the Left, seem very interested in making sure, “a man’s pe.ni.s is allowed in the girls bathroom, changing room, and the womans shower.”

      • Claim his enemies? The guy’s “enemies” are all marxist POS demtards. Too be nuked. That these turds tried to smear him with all kinds of innuendo and sleeze but even the Obiden Dept of “Justice” didn’t charge him demonstrates the lie. Typical demtard.

        Yes, appoint him to replace Sen. little Marco Rubio.

        • Mark Levin is much more qualified to be AG than Gaetz who I was fine with. At this point what RINOs and Rats think should not matter one iota.

  4. why did it take the police 30 minutes to respond to a ‘pervert predator adult man texting my 13 year old daughter pulled a gun on me and threatened me’ call?

    • Size of patrol zone, route to incident, priority of call, and available staff. Some regions just don’t do well with response time.

    • We started a formal safety team at my church.

      Three cars with four armed agents from the Department of Corrections rolled into our parking lot on a Wednesday night, they asked if we recognized a name. Since we have AA, NA, and Divorce Recovery ministries, it was possible he was in our building but we did not recognize the name. DOC agents informed us that the ankle monitor last pinged in our parking lot and they were looking for him. Then, they left.

      We sheltered in place while a team of volunteers cleared the building. Our pastor called the local police and they responded…. 45 minutes later.

      Now, several members are armed every time the door opens.

    • I’m sure that elongated response times are to give the citizenry the opportunity to deal with the pond scum, so that the cops don’t have to do more paperwork.

      Probably about 50 years ago, one of my not-yet-coworkers called the Detroit police about a possible break-in near his house…yes, IN Detroit. Cops arrived. He greets them, and they asked why he had his shotgun. He says he was going to go look around that house. Cops said, “well we won’t be here for another 10 minutes anyway, so we can’t tell you what to do.”

      So my friend clears the house. Nobody was there, and the cops re-cleared it, then went on with their shift. My friend said that they had too many rules and could get in a lot of trouble if they had to shoot somebody.

      I think some of today’s delayed arrival by police is just to increase the odds that all the shootin’ people need will be over with by the time they get there. That way they can arrest every survivor and just get on with their shift.

  5. The most important parts of this story weren’t mentioned. Tax $$$$ saved and any chances of recidivism were reduced to zero.

  7. Pa Supreme Court unanimously shoots down Philly challenge to preemption law. Interestingly the court is controlled by democrats and has moved steadily leftward in recent years.

  8. Your only allowed dates with minors if your a senile old president named Joe.
    Now back to the root cause of the problem, texting on cell phones.
    Seems someone could do something democratic and ban cell phones. If that’s not possible due to the 1st Amendment getting in the way at least they could infringe the hell out of the use of cell phones.
    America needs more laws and less freedom.
    Kamala in 2028
    Rise above the Hate.

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