ORMOND-BY-THE-SEA, Fla. – A gas station clerk accused of fatally shooting an off-duty Edgewater police officer on Monday told deputies he was having a bad day on his way to work and thought about shooting the man earlier that day, according to new details released by the Volusia Sheriff’s Office.
The fatal shooting happened around 4 p.m. at a Circle K in Ormond-by-the-Sea. The gas station clerk, 24-year-old Eduardo Machado, was arrested and faces a first-degree murder charge.
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According to the sheriff’s office, Machado “confessed to the murder” and had seen the Edgewater police officer, identified as 45-year-old David Jewell, in the store several times prior to the shooting.
Machado told deputies he was having a bad day on his way to work on Monday and had thought about shooting Jewell earlier that day, officials said. Jewell had stopped at the Circle K to pick up drinks on the way home from picking up his father-in-law from the hospital, Chitwood said.
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Surveillance video showed Machado walking out of the store soon after Jewell had walked in, officials said. Chitwood showed part of the video during a news conference on Tuesday that showed Machado walk back into the store before shooting Jewell “multiple times” in the back of the head.
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“I’m not going out on a limb on saying this: That gun was bought for one purpose and one purpose alone. That gun was bought to assassinate Police Officer Jewell for whatever reason this guy was thinking,” Chitwood said.
The sheriff said the handgun used in the shooting was purchased by Machado on Sept. 5 and picked up around 2 p.m. Monday. Deputies later found the weapon inside a jacket in the back seat of Machado’s vehicle, officials said.
“I will tell you — with 38 years of policing, homicide detective at the time the fourth largest city in the country — to watch the evil and the calculating-ness of what he did to Officer Jewell, you cannot describe it,” Chitwood said. “To unload, stop, reload and then just go right back at it again and fire additional shots. Again, we’re talking 24 shots from, probably, between 1 and 2 feet away.”
Machado told deputies he believed he may have had an argument with Jewell at some point in the past but could not provide details about it, the sheriff’s office said.
Deputies said Machado did not know Jewell was an officer but did say he had seen Jewell with a gun in the past and was “afraid of him.”
“For the record, Officer Jewell wasn’t armed yesterday,” Volusia Sheriff Mike Chitwood said during the news conference.
The sheriff’s office said Machado’s family members told deputies that he had been diagnosed with a mental health disorder in the past and that he was “hearing voices.” Chitwood said this information has not yet been confirmed.
Acting Edgewater Police Chief Charles Geiger described Jewell as someone “we could rely on for anything.” He was a police officer with the Edgewater Police Department since 2023.
Jewell had also previously worked for the Volusia Sheriff’s Office as a telecommunicator and won a “Telecommunicator of the Quarter” award in 2020.
For much of Tuesday, a steady flow of people stopped by the Edgewater Police Department, where they left flowers on and around Jewell’s police vehicle.
“Honestly, I’m very emotional,” said Glorimi Mannie, who spoke to News 6 after paying her respects to Jewell Tuesday. “I just want to cry right now.”
Mannie said she never met Jewell, but she was gutted when she heard what happened to him Monday.
“Every day he would come and clock in and work,” Mannie said. “(Jewell) probably was put in more threatening situations and still was able to go home. This was just pointless. There was no reason for him to have been shot down like that.”
At one point, News 6 and other media outlets turned off their cameras out of respect for Jewell’s family after they arrived to have a moment by his vehicle.
The Edgewater Police Department posted on Facebook Tuesday to share ways that people can help Jewell’s family, including links to a MealTrain page and a GoFundMe page.
An investigation is ongoing.