An officer shot and killed an armed suspect who tried to run during a gang and drug investigation and also pulled his gun, according to the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office. It was the first police shooting in the city since July 17.
It happened Tuesday around 4 p.m. while officers were monitoring “some known gang members” in the 2900 block of Justina Road near Merrill Road, near Jacksonville University.
“They were watching them flash some kind of weapons back and forth, they were getting in and out of a car with weapons, they were conducting multiple drug transactions,” Chief Alan Parker said.
When officers approached them, two of the three complied, he said. But the third took off running.
“One of the officers initiated a brief foot pursuit of the individual running with the gun,” Parker said. “As the person pulled the gun, the officer said he had a gun. ‘Gun, gun, gun.'”
The officer fired four times, the chief said. The suspect fell to the ground and dropped the weapon. But he still wouldn’t obey and stood back up and raised his hands, “we assume just to indicate that they were empty at the time.” The foot chase then continued and he jumped over a wall. Officers were able to find him and he was taken to a hospital where he died.
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No next of kin were known yet, so Parker did not release his name. He did say that he was 39 years old and that the other two suspects who remained at the scene had also been arrested.
The officer was six-year veteran Bradly Griffitts, and it was his second shooting by police, according to the chief. The other was also fatal in 2020 and involved five other officers who fired their weapons.
This is the fifth time a Jacksonville officer has shot a suspect, with two of them dying. This time last year, officers shot 12 people, eight of them fatally, according to Times-Union data.
This article originally appeared in the Florida Times-Union: Gang investigation leads Jacksonville cop to shoot suspect
