The first police shooting by the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office in 2023 left one man dead, another in arrest, and an 8-year-old boy at least physically unscathed.
Chief Mark Romano reported that on Thursday, drug investigators were keeping an eye on a known drug dealer who was travelling in a car with another man near Drury Lane in the 13200 block of North Main Street. Around 5:45 p.m., they attempted to block the car in order to apprehend the suspect after observing numerous narcotics transactions.
According to Romano, the driver was holding a huge knife and attempted to flee. He was repeatedly instructed to put down the knife by police officers wearing tactical vests identifying them as such. The chief claimed that when he turned toward them rather than complying, two cops shot him multiple times. He did not make it.
The other first suspect, according to Romano, was located and taken into jail without a hitch, and an 8-year-old child was also discovered inside the car. The names of any other parties involved or their relationships to the child were not made public.
According to Times-Union statistics, Jacksonville police shot eight suspects last year, four of whom survived. Officers murdered three suspects the year before, and they also injured four others. In the city’s 14 police shootings in 2020, eight suspects died; one of those shootings was later determined to be self-inflicted.
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