JSO: Murder suspect says 'You're going to have to shoot me' before officers do
Jacksonville police shot and killed a man suspected to be involved in a Broward County homicide after trying to arrest him Friday evening in Clay County, authorities said.
Chief Alan Parker of the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office said that about a week ago Broward County law enforcement contacted them about a murder investigation asking for some assistance. That led to the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office executing a search warrant on a residence and a vehicle and seizing a pistol from each.
Follow-up investigation led to another arrest warrant and Jacksonville deploying a SWAT team after tracking the suspect to a shopping center in the 1100 block of Park Avenue in Orange Park where he was parked. They made contact with him about 6 p.m. Friday and blocked his vehicle in with three law enforcement vehicles, Parker said.
The suspect said, "I'm not getting out, you're going to have to shoot me, you're going to have to kill me," Parker said.
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As one officer backed out, a second officer in the front maintained contact and continued to order him out of the vehicle, the chief said.
"The suspect then produced a handgun, pointed it at him; they engaged him and eliminated the threat at that point," Parker said. "They pulled him out of the vehicle when it was safe to do so. They began rendering aid. He did not survive his injuries."
Sheriff T.K. Waters stepped forward to address the media's line of questioning about the suspect not actually firing a shot.
"An officer is not required to let someone shoot at them before they use deadly force," Waters said. "That has never been OK, and it's not OK in this situation. So they did what they did, they followed the law, and it ended up like it did. But let me say it again, they do not have to wait to be fired at before they engage a suspect. If he raises a handgun, he points it at them, they are at that point able to use deadly force per Florida statutes."
It was the two officers' second police shootings, according to Parker. No names have been released, nor the details of the Broward County homicide as of Friday night.
This was the Sheriff's Office's seventh shooting of a suspect this year, six of whom died, according to Times-Union records. Last year 12 people were shot by Jacksonville police, eight fatally. In 2021 there were only seven shot, three dead. Prior to that in 2020, city police shot 14 people, eight fatal and one other who died from a self-inflicted gunshot.
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Jacksonville police officers shoot and kill suspect in Broward murder
