Jacksonville community rallies for change after police-involved shooting

People living in Springfield are demanding answers after a Jacksonville Sheriff's Office officer shot a 22-year-old man after a high-speed chase on Sunday.

Police say the suspect, Vernell Bing Jr., was in a stolen rental car reportedly linked to a shootout in April.

Police said officer Tyler Landreville fired five times at Bing Sunday, striking him once in the head.

Bing was taken on life support around 8:45 p.m. on Monday.

The JSO said it was unclear what prompted Landreville to fire his gun.

“No justice. No peace. No racist police,” community members chanted Monday as they rallied near the intersection of Liberty and 9th streets.

"There were too many families that live in this neighborhood for you to open fire," said one local mom said, who didn't want to show her face on camera. "I have a son and so I'm concerned because I feel like it's open season."

“There’s other actions that could have been taken, but he took what he wanted,” Bing’s mother Shirley McDaniel said. “He took my son.”

Action News Jax crime and safety expert Ken Jefferson said there would be more transparency if JSO used body cameras.

“Let's outfit these officers now so we won’t have these issues, so we won’t have the public uproar and, God forbid, civil unrest,” Jefferson said.

The JSO has said it doesn’t have the funding for body cameras.

City leaders said it would be up to the Sheriff's Office to come with up with a budget presentation that includes where the money would come from for body cameras and the policies the agency would follow.

The JSO conducts its own internal investigations into police-involved shootings unlike a number of other law enforcement agencies.

Cox Media Group