JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A 39-year-old man who is in critical condition at the hospital after an officer-involved shooting has been charged with aggravated battery with a deadly weapon, according to jail records.
Benjamin Kubi was booked while still at the hospital, records show.
Recommended Videos
According to police, Kubi was driving through a construction zone at I-295 and North Main Street just before 11 p.m. Tuesday when he stopped his car and stabbed a construction worker who was directing traffic.
JSO Chief of Investigations Alan Parker said the attack appears to have been random.
The construction worker who was stabbed in the chest/stomach area was taken to a hospital and is expected to be OK.
Right after he was stabbed, the worker alerted his foreman, who told off-duty JSO Sgt. Ralaska Hoover. She was working security at the site, Parker said.
Hoover immediately pursued Kubi in her car and was then joined by Sgt. Torrie Robinson when the call went out.
They chased Kubi’s vehicle for over 2 miles to Duval Station Road until Kubi stopped his car, got out and charged at Hoover, holding the knife, Parker said.
Kubi was hit was a Taser, but he got up and continued to run at Hoover with the knife, which is when Robinson shot Kubi several times, and Hoover fired her weapon as well, Parker said.
Parker and Sheriff T.K. Waters said that the entire encounter from the time Kubi got out of the car to the shots fired was roughly 12 seconds.
“She had to actually retreat from him because he was chasing her before he went down from the gunshot wounds. It was a pretty scary situation for both of the sergeants,” Sheriff T.K. Waters said.
Kubi was taken to the hospital in critical condition. Neither sergeant was injured.
This was not Kubi’s first encounter with law enforcement.
Just last month, Kubi was accused of threatening a JSO officer at a traffic crash scene, mimicking pulling a gun trigger and saying, “You are a dead man.” The officer said, “What did you say to me?” and Kubi repeated what he’d said and then drove off, according to police.
Despite identifying his vehicle, officers couldn’t find Kubi after the incident.
He was also arrested in 2019 on domestic battery charges.