JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A 32-year-old woman is dead after she was shot and killed by police just after 10:30 a.m. Sunday off Dunn Avenue and Mar Vic Lane in North Jacksonville.
It happened after police received three calls in two days from people saying she was wandering around the neighborhood, pointing her gun at multiple people, including one dog.
The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office said they couldn’t locate her on Saturday morning after receiving the first two calls about the suspect about 9 and 10.
Once they arrived on scene Sunday morning, JSO officials said they were quickly able to piece together that she was the same woman they received calls about the day prior.
Police said three officers followed her on foot for about a quarter of a mile, shouting at her to put her hands in the air, while another officer drove beside them for cover.
“At one point, an officer said, ‘I believe she has a gun,’ and was able to see that she was sticking her hand in a bag on multiple occasions,” said new JSO undersheriff Mark Romano.
After about 12 minutes on scene, JSO officials said the suspect pulled out a gun and shot their police vehicle, hitting the driver’s side door. No officers were hit.
That’s when JSO says three officers shot back at her, and she was pronounced dead on scene.
One neighbor who wished to remain anonymous saw the incident.
“There was a young woman, African American, hands in the air, saying, ‘Please leave me alone. I didn’t do anything. Please don’t make me do it,’” she said. “Next thing I saw was a lot of smoke and a lot of dust, well over 15 shots.”
She said it was obvious that the woman was having a mental health break.
“You can hear the tears. You can hear the crack in the voice,” she said. “You can hear from the yelling how it’s almost like she sounded scared.”
“Where’s the de-escalation tactics? Where’s the disarming tactics?”
Action News Jax brought up her concerns to Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters.
“That was the de-escalation technique, following her all the way down the street, asking her to show her hands, and then ultimately at one point asking her to drop a gun,” Waters said. “How else do you de-escalate something like that?”
“She didn’t want to listen,” Romano said. “She wanted to pull a gun on the police and shoot at us.”
Police said this is the 15th officer-involved shooting in Jacksonville involving their department this year.
Action News Jax is still working to confirm the identity of the suspect. We’ll bring you those details as we receive them both online and on air.
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