Goins now praises deputies' handling of tased autistic man but still wants BCSO body cams

Cocoa City Councilman Alex Goins on Tuesday stood by his call that Brevard County Sheriff Office agents should wear body cams, despite revising his opinion of how deputies handled a man with autism that Sheriff Wayne Ivey said was brandishing a knife outside a Cocoa house around Christmas.

Speaking about the incident after viewing the dash cam video of the incident that left a young man tased multiple times but alive, and after talking to Ivey, Goins said: "It went from something that could have been really tragic real quick."

"This situation ended up pretty good, but at the same time, let me say that I still believe in body cameras," Goins said. "It's not just for the officers, to get them in trouble. I believe it's about transparency. It helps both the officer and the citizen," Goins added.

More:Brevard deputies say they tasered an autistic man holding a knife. So, where's the blade?

Goins' remarks came after Ivey, in a Facebook video that attacked FLORIDA TODAY's reporting on the story, released the dashboard camera footage on Monday showing part of the encounter on Dec. 22 between deputies and 23-year-old Jarquez Johnson. Ivey said in the video that Johnson, who is autistic and has a developmental disorder that his family says leaves him with a mental age of 16, was met by appropriate less-than-lethal force after he refused to heed deputies' commands to drop the knife.

While the dashcam video clearly showed Johnson holding a long, shiny object in his right hand during the initial confrontation, no knife was found at the scene. But the 9-1-1 caller, Ivey and one of the responding deputies identified the object absolutely as a knife. A second deputy said in his official report of the incident that Johnson was holding "an object in his right hand" but because it was dark, the deputy couldn't say exactly what it was. Deputies did not officially arrest Johnson and he has not been charged with any crime.

Goins, reacting to initial community concerns about the incident, had questioned BCSO training and how the encounter was handled by the responders. Deputies arrived on the scene in response to a caller report that a knife-wielding man was lurking around a house in her neighborhood.

The dash cam footage was included in the BSCO Facebook video post in which Ivey attacked FLORIDA TODAY for a prior story that quoted a friend who witnessed the encounter and Johnson's mother, who both criticized police for using a stun gun on somebody with autism and cast doubt on the allegations that Johnson was holding a knife.

FLORIDA TODAY's initial story also quoted a police expert who said the deputies likely acted appropriately in response to such a call, but said the disappearance of the knife was puzzling.

The conflicting accounts have renewed an ongoing discussion over the sheriff's office lack of body cameras, which bodycam supporters say could have shed additional light on the incident. The dash cam video released by the sheriff didn't show the full encounter. FLORIDA TODAY has requested the full dash cam video, as well as the mandatory use-of-force report and the stun gun logs, which records its usage, along with a host of related records and documents.

Goins says deputies acted appropriately

Goins said Tuesday his questions surrounding the incident had been mostly resolved by the dashcam video, which showed deputies confronting Johnson outside a friend's home in the 4000 block of Lake Circle near Cocoa.

The two-minute clip backs up case reports that said deputies found Johnson in the front yard of the home, holding an object that they believed was likely a knife. According to the video, deputies commanded Johnson at gunpoint to "drop the knife" for nearly a minute before holstering their firearms and shocking Johnson with a projectile stun gun. One of the deputies is heard on the video calling to the other to move to "less-lethal" force. The video ends as Johnson walks off the screen with deputies in pursuit.

Unterio Crawford, a friend of Johnson's who lives at the home and whose cell phone video of the incident had previously circulated on social media, can be heard in the background of the dashcam video shouting that Johnson has autism.

Crawford's clip picks up with deputies on top of Johnson around the side of the home, shocking him with the stun gun during the struggle to place him in handcuffs. Deputies used the stun gun on Johnson at least four times throughout the encounter, according to a case report.

After viewing the sheriff's video, Goins said he felt the deputies did the right thing by switching from their pistols to the stun gun. "I think the officer did a pretty good job at the transition, knowing there was an autistic person involved," he said.

More:Cocoa officer arrested after standoff denied bond, moved to Seminole County Jail

Goins previous comments drew the sheriff's ire, who called out Goins twice by name and flashed his picture on screen in the Facebook video, saying he was "taking aim" at the Cocoa councilman and called him a "so-called elected leader."

"Instead of trying to look important, try to actually be important, and pick up the phone and call me to ask what actually happened," Ivey said, directing his comments to Goins. "Here endeth your lesson."

Goins declined to comment directly on the jabs, saying he has since spoken to Ivey and cleared the air.

"Yeah, he called me out, but it's all good. It is what it is," Goins said. "He's going to do what he needs to do to protect his people."

Ivey defends deputies in Facebook video

Much of Ivey's 20-minute video was framed as an attack on FLORIDA TODAY's reporting on the incident, which noted that no knife had been found at the scene and reported skepticism from Crawford and Johnson's mother that Johnson had been holding a knife at all.

Ivey, whose office did not respond to multiple messages seeking additional information prior to the publication of the original story, used the video to disclose new details on the background of the incident, including highlighting prior training the deputies had completed in interacting with people with autism.

The sheriff also referenced sheriff's office records he said showed Johnson had previously been admitted for involuntary mental health treatment after becoming violent at least three times under Florida's Baker Act, including once being "tasered" after Ivey said he tried to hit a deputy.

Tiffany Johnson, Jarquez Johnson's mother, said Wednesday that her son had been committed for treatment for outbursts in the past, but disputed the sheriff's office account of the previous incident, saying he had not tried to hit anyone and was just acting out as a symptom of his condition. She said her son had no adult or juvenile criminal record.

Ivey said on the video that deputies didn't find the knife because they left the scene after only a cursory search due to a large "agitated" crowd that had formed.

"In an effort to quell the situation, our deputies loaded the subject into the patrol car and left the area for a hospital for medical clearance," he said.

More:Deputy charged in shooting death pulled trigger twice on gun he thought was unloaded, report says

Crawford, who witnessed the incident, told FLORIDA TODAY he had not seen Johnson holding a knife and didn't find anything resembling a knife when he went out to clean the yard a couple of days later. Tiffany Johnson said she wasn't convinced by the sheriff's video. "What he had in his hand, it looks like a thing you could mix paint with," she said Wednesday.

Renewed discussion over body cameras

Ivey has long resisted body cameras for his agency. The sheriff has cited what he said was the high cost of the cameras and technology to support them, along with mixed research on whether the cameras lead to improved officer conduct.

Community activist Dwight Seigler said, while it was good the dashboard camera on the deputy's vehicle captured some of the incident, dashcams are no substitute for body cameras.

"What if the incident is not taking place in front of the car? The car can't be around the house and around the back of the building or inside the dwelling," Seigler said. The fact that deputies couldn't find the knife was the "perfect reason" to have had body cameras in that situation, he said.

Seigler, who is running as a Republican for the District 1 County Commission seat currently held by Rita Pritchett, said he would make getting funding for bodycams in the sheriff's office a priority if he is elected. Pritchett is not seeking reelection in 2024 due to term limits.

Bennie Jackson Jr., president of the South Brevard NAACP, said while he understood there are pros and cons related to bodycams, they go a long way toward building trust in communities.

"The communities feel more comfortable when law enforcement has body cameras," Jackson said. "It's protection on both sides. So it just seems strange to me that the sheriff would not be supportive of body cams."

Eric Rogers is a watchdog reporter for FLORIDA TODAY. Contact Rogers at 321-242-3717 or esrogers@floridatoday.com. Follow him on Twitter: @EricRogersFT.

This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Ivey defends Brevard deputies who tasered autistic man with new video