Okaloosa deputy who mistook a falling acorn for gunfire resigns amid shooting inquiry
SHALIMAR — A deputy from the Okaloosa County Sheriff's Office has resigned following an investigation of an officer-involved shooting Nov. 12 in Fort Walton Beach.
In the incident, Deputy Jesse Hernandez and Sgt. Beth Roberts fired several shots into a patrol car where a suspect was being held after Hernandez mistook an acorn hitting the roof of the vehicle as suppressed gunfire, according to a report by the Sheriff's Office.
The suspect was not injured in the shooting.
"Deputy Hernandez resigned during our investigation but was ultimately found to have violated policy," Sheriff Eric Aden said in a prepared statement. Roberts was not found to have violated policy, and both deputies were cleared of criminal wrongdoing.
Here is what we know.
The call
According to a final report by the Okaloosa County Sheriff's Office, the department received a call at 8:42 a.m. on Nov. 12 about a vehicle driving on McLaren Circle, near Green Acres in Fort Walton Beach, honking its horn and disturbing the peace since 3 a.m. earlier that morning.
Thirteen minutes later, another call was received from Celestiana Lopez saying that her boyfriend, Marquis Jackson, 22, was refusing to return her vehicle and had made threats toward her by call and text. Lopez told deputies that both incidents were related.
Hernandez, Roberts and deputies Javier Reyna and Deja Riley responded to the call. Roberts was the first on the scene at 8:57 a.m.
Lopez told Roberts that Jackson borrowed her car but refused to return it. Lopez also showed threatening text messages and a picture from inside her car that appeared to show a firearm suppressor. She told Roberts she wanted to press charges against Jackson for vehicle theft and told the sergeant about other alleged instances of violence from Jackson.
At 9:09 a.m., Jackson arrived at the scene, and deputies Reyna and Hernandez approached him. The Sheriff's Office said Jackson did not cooperate with the verbal requests but did not resist a pat-down from Hernandez.
The Sheriff's Office report said it was later revealed that Jackson provided false information about the location of Lopez's vehicle, which her mother later confirmed.
At 9:12 a.m., Roberts told deputies Reyna and Hernadez to detain Jackson. They placed him in handcuffs and into Hernandez's patrol car. Reyna conducted a more thorough search of Jackson outside of Roberts' view, and Roberts helped Lopez complete forms for vehicle theft while discussing threats and the firearm suppressor picture, according to the report.
Riley and Reyna left the scene to find Lopez's missing car, and Roberts and Hernandez remained the only two law enforcement officers at the scene. After Roberts told Hernandez about the suppressor picture, she told him to take Jackson while Roberts stayed behind to help Lopez complete paperwork.
The shooting
In the final report, the Sheriff's Office offered a detailed timeline of the events surrounding the shooting.
In video collected from the deputies, Hernandez could be seen walking toward the passenger-side rear door of his patrol vehicle as an acorn fell, striking the top of his vehicle.
Hernandez fell to the ground while repeatedly shouting, "Shots fired."
Hernandez's body camera then captures him getting into a firing position, then drawing and firing into the rear of his patrol car. While he was firing his weapon, Roberts came closer to Hernandez's car and began firing into the front of the vehicle.
During the crossfire, Hernandez fell to the ground while continuing to fire into the patrol car, yelling that he had been shot. After ejecting the empty magazine from his weapon, Hernandez could be seen crawling to his left, taking cover behind a parked car.
At that time, Hernandez called out that he had been shot but said, "I'm good. I feel weird, but I am good."
As Hernandez took cover behind vehicles, Roberts called for backup over her radio, reporting shots fired with an officer down.
Jackson escaped the shooting without injury, and no weapon was found in his possession. According to the report, witnesses in the area also said that the sound they heard could have been perceived as a suppressed gunshot.
Hernandez was helped by EMS officials and taken for further medical attention, where it was determined that he had not been shot.
According to the Sheriff's Office, Hernandez has been with the department since January 2022, while Roberts has been a deputy since May 2008. Both were current on resistance training and firearms qualifications.
Wagner's findings
Capt. Robert Wagner from the Office of Professional Standards oversaw the investigation into the shooting.
The report said Hernandez heard what he interpreted as gunfire from a suppressed weapon, which led him to believe he was shot at and led him to return fire.
During the investigation, Hernandez, who had a military background, said he was familiar with the sound of a suppressed firearm and reaffirmed his belief that the noise he heard was consistent with suppressed gunfire. In an interview, Hernandez declined to watch his body cam footage to verify the timing of the sound with the acorn impact.
On Dec. 4, Hernandez resigned from the OCSO. He was scheduled to be interviewed for a second time on Dec. 8 but declined to participate.
The final findings from the report said that Hernandez's use of deadly force against Jackson was "not objectively reasonable." Roberts' use of deadly force against Jackson was "objectively reasonable," the report said. She was exonerated of any wrongdoing.
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Wagner said Roberts fired into the patrol car in an effort to save Hernandez's life. But once she saw Hernandez move to a covered position, she "reevaluated the situation" and began treating the situation as a deputy would a barricaded subject.
"Sergeant Roberts’ response was objectively reasonable. Without the benefit of hindsight, and making split-second decisions based on the information she was gathering through her senses," Wagner wrote. "Sergeant Roberts acted in a manner consistent with the protection of life in the face of imminent and immediate danger of death."
Statement from the sheriff
"The deputies were cleared of any criminal wrongdoing. But let this be clear: we understand this situation was traumatic for Mr. Jackson and all involved and have incorporated this officer-involved shooting into our training to try to ensure nothing similar happens again," Aden said in his prepared statement.
"We are very thankful Mr. Jackson wasn’t injured and we have no reason to think former Deputy Hernandez acted with any malice. Though his actions were ultimately not warranted, we do believe he felt his life was in immediate peril and his response was based off the totality of circumstances surrounding this fear.
"Just as we have an obligation to protect our officers so they can go home safely to their families, law enforcement has the same obligation to any citizen being investigated for a crime.”
To read the full report of the officer-involved shooting, go to http://tinyurl.com/ye22k4cw.
The Daily News reached out to Jackson via social media but had not heard back from him at the time of publication.
This article originally appeared on Northwest Florida Daily News: Okaloosa deputy resigns after Fort Walton Beach shooting
