Detective who fired fatal shot at Christopher Jordan returns to work Monday

Reporter: Amy Galo
Published: Updated:
police
Fort Myers Police Department. CREDTI: WINK News

Fort Myers police have confirmed to WINK News the detective who shot and killed a man inside his home will return to work Monday morning.

State attorney Amira Fox paved the way for detective James Moschella to return to duty when she declared the killing of 58-year-old Christopher Jordan “justified.”

The scene along Stella Street went from bad to deadly on Dec. 1.

Jordan’s sister Cynthia called 911, saying her brother threatened her with a gun.

Officers and detectives raced to the scene where witnesses backed up the sister’s story of Jordan waving a gun around.

After trying to talk him out of the home, Moschella yelled “gun” and shot him. However, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement investigators never found a weapon.

Jordan’s brother talked with WINK News exclusively moments after the state attorney said she would not pursue criminal charges against the Fort Myers Police Department detective.

Angelo Ruth said, “Sad… Today is a sad day… It is sad that my brother would go out like that.”

“We guarantee they’re gonna do it again. They’re gonna do it again,” said James Muwakkil, the Lee County NAACP president.

On the surface, we have a white detective killing a black man, but WINK News safety and security expert Kristen Ziman said she doesn’t see what transpired as an issue of race because there are so many other factors at play.

They include Jordan acting like he had a gun and even playing a recording of gunshots at police during the standoff.

“This individual, Mr. Jordan, was in crisis,” said Ziman. “We’ve been trained in that extensively to have conversations and to really use verbal commands and negotiations in order to talk these individuals out of crisis, and in this particular case, wasn’t responding to anything. In fact, accelerating the fact that ‘I have a gun,’ and then of course, the audible gunshots, so, to me this is not a case I believe that the DOJ [the Department of Justice] would look at.”

But Jordan’s brother and the Lee County NAACP said they’re already taking a look, and only in time will we learn if the DOJ gets involved.

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