Who is the suspect in the Daytona Beach police officer shooting?

Othal Wallace, 29, wanted in connection with shooting

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Nineteen cases in Volusia County. Two cases on file in Broward County. One case each in Seminole County and Brevard County.

At 29 years old, Othal Wallace, the suspect wanted in the shooting of a Daytona Beach police officer Jason Raynor, has left a significant paper trail across courts in Florida.

News 6 Investigators found Wallace’s name appeared in more than a dozen court records in both South Florida and in Central Florida. Most of those cases, however, are for misdemeanor traffic crimes, like driving without a license.

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It was not until Wallace’s mid-twenties that the cases began escalating from misdemeanor traffic offenses to more serious felonies like domestic violence.

Wallace’s most recent felony arrest in Volusia County was for domestic violence in March 2018, when police believed he assaulted the mother of his two sons.

The charge was later reduced to misdemeanor domestic violence after Wallace completed a deferred-prosecution agreement. The agreement forbid Wallace from possessing a firearm for at least 12 months and mandated him to an eight-week anger management session.

According to court records, Wallace was arrested twice in 2018 in Broward County: once for domestic violence and a second time for violating a no-contact order with the victim in the domestic case.

Both charges were later no-filed by the court, after the woman at the center of the case asked the judge to remove the no-contact order because Wallace and the woman had been “friends for a very long time”, and the woman wanted Wallace to continue pursuit of working in a barber shop.

Court records show Wallace later wrote the judge asking if he could collect the items that were taken as part of the investigation back from the Davie Police Department.

The same year, Wallace was arrested by the West Melbourne Police Department after he was spotted driving recklessly on Interstate 95, records show.

According to his arrest report, he was pulled over and officers found marijuana in his car. He was arrested and charged with driving with a suspended license and possession of cannabis.

He pleaded no contest to the charges.

According to several police reports, Wallace’s listed address at one time matched the same address as a group foster home in Enterprise: Florida United Methodist Children’s Home, known locally as FUMCH. A spokesperson with FUMCH told News 6 that Wallace left the home’s independent living program in 2012, when he was approximately 20 years old.

According to police, Raynor, the police officer, is in critical condition, and Wallace is still at large.

DPBD Chief Jakari Young told reporters Thursday evening that detectives are closely monitoring social media accounts which they believe belong to Wallace, but he would not say which accounts specifically belonged to the suspect.

Anyone with information is asked to call the department’s Emergency Operations Center at 386-671-5555.


About the Authors:

Erik Sandoval joined the News 6 team as a reporter in May 2013 and became an Investigator in 2020. During his time at News 6, Erik has covered several major stories, including the 2016 Presidential campaign. He was also one of the first reporters live on the air at the Pulse Nightclub shooting.