JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A man was shot and killed by police early Wednesday morning in what Sheriff T.K. Waters described as a “bizarre” encounter that included the man attacking a woman who’s pregnant with his child, pulling out her hair and later chewing on it as officers tried to bring him into custody.
The incident began around 11:20 p.m. at a home on Brahma Bull Circle West just off New Berlin Road on Jacksonville’s Northside.
Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office Chief Alan Parker explained that family members called 911 to report the man was having “some type of episode.” When Jacksonville Fire and Rescue arrived, they called JSO for help.
When officers got inside the home, they heard screaming from multiple people in a room toward the back of the hallway that was locked, Parker said.
The officers kicked the door in and found a dishelved room with the bed overturned and stuff everywhere, Parker said.
Officers said the man was lying across the bed, grabbing a woman by the hair who was on the floor, clutching a small child. Police later learned the woman is pregnant with the man’s baby.
Parker said the man was yelling and screaming and would not let the woman go. As they tried to separate them, officers used their Tasers on the man, and she was able to safely get out of the room with the child.
But not before the man had ripped out part of her hair, Parker said.
According to police, the man fought and screamed incoherently as he was being Tased.
“They’re working through that. They couldn’t really understand what he was saying,” Parker said. “We’re not really sure what he was going through. That’s all part of what they’re looking at.”
Because the man still wasn’t cooperating after being hit with Tasers, the officers backed out just beyond the threshold of the room and talked to the man for about half an hour, trying to get him to come out, Parker said.
The whole time, he was chewing on the woman’s hair that he’d ripped out, the officers said.
“Patiently, they tried to work through the situation,” Waters said. “It was very bizarre, very dangerous. You could tell it was dangerous.”
Eventually, the man came out, and Waters said two officers and a sergeant formed an arrest team to try to take him into custody.
Parker described him as a “bigger guy” and said he kept fighting, so the officers backed off again and two of them hit him with their Tasers at the same time.
Waters said the man stood there with his arms crossed and when the Taser cycle ended, he pulled out the prongs and charged at the officers.
“It’s difficult to figure out what’s going on. You’re there trying to bring the situation to a close safely,” Waters said.
Parker said that when the man attacked, he knocked one officer into a table and drove another one back through the kitchen.
That’s when the officers opened fire, Parker said. No one but the officers and the man were in the home at the time.
Paramedics rushed in to help, but the man died at the hospital. His name has not yet been released.
One of the officers was treated at the scene for minor injuries, and the other was “banged up,” Parker said. The sergeant was not hurt.
“It’s unfortunate. You never want it to end like that. But it did,” Waters said. “It’s a tough situation. You don’t want to see anyone hurt. ... In this situation, the officers had to do what they needed to do to leave there safely.”
This was the 11th officer-involved shooting of the year for JSO, and the second in just a week that proved deadly for the suspect.
