Duval County

Officer-involved shooting leaves machete-wielding teen dead

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — UPDATE: JSO identified the suspect as 17-year-old Axal Perez and revealed an image of the machete.

A Jacksonville police officer shot and killed a 17-year-old accused of threatening him with a machete Saturday night on the city’s westside.

Jacksonville Fire and Rescue was responding to a medical call on Monroe Smith Road when a man came out with a large machete and chased them. The first responders hid behind trees and called the Jacksonville’s Sheriff’s Office, police say.

JSO said they arrived on the scene just before 10, the suspect came out of the home with the machete and allegedly started coming towards one of the officers. That was when the officer fired 3 shots, killing the suspect.

JSO says this is the officer’s first officer-involved shooting and he had only been on the force for a year.


Jessica May

Jessica May

Jessica May is an assignment editor and digital content producer for Action News Jax.