Jacksonville cop's survival in wild 1997 shooting to be profiled on TV Saturday - Florida Times-Union

Jacksonville police officers check a car in which a suspect died after a shootout with a police officer on Oct. About 10 p. m. , patrol officer P. D. Soulis stopped here on Emerson Street just east of I-95 to check the car at a closed business. The suspect shot at Soulis several times, hitting the officer. Officer Pete Soulis, then 38, was shot five times in the attack, while Joseph Kevin McGrotha, 27, was shot about 20 times. Police never figured out why McGrotha, armed with two 9mm handguns, opened fired on Soulis after the officer went to investigate why he parked in a closed gas station parking lot on Emerson Street. As McGrotha kept firing, Soulis returned fire, unloaded and reloaded his gun twice, police said. Soulis survived being shot through the left arm three times and once near the left thigh. He then developed and headed a counter-terrorism program in Washington for passenger rail service and is currently in Afghanistan working with a counter-terrorism unit, he told the Times-Union in a Facebook message. Source: jacksonville.com