Six Jacksonville Officers on leave following shooting of armed sexual battery suspect

Jacksonville, FL — Six officers opened fire when a sexual battery suspect who was inside of a pickup truck grabbed a gun and rolled over toward them.  The suspect was shot multiple times and died.

A Jacksonville Sheriff’s Officer spotted a pickup truck backed up against bushes in the parking lot of the Harveys Supermarket on Arlington Road just south of Atlantic Boulevard just before 4:00 a.m. today.

“He considered the vehicle placement to be suspicious since the store was closed at that time and he was concerned that the occupant might be involved in a potential burglary or other criminal activity”, said JSO Director of Investigations Ron Lendvay.

The officer spotlighted the vehicle and saw a man lying down in the backseat of the truck.  The man then jumped into the front seat.

The officer made contact with the man and was able to confirm his name and date of birth, confirming he had a felony sexual battery warrant from another jurisdiction. Lendvay did not say where specifically the warrant was issued nor did he name the suspect.

Director Lendvay says the suspect became non-compliant, rolled up the windows and locked the truck.

There was a lengthy dialogue with multiple officers over the course of 25 minutes, and officers twice broke out the windows and tased the suspect with no apparent impact.

"One of the officers was able to get the driver’s side door open and they were able to observe the man with a gun in his hand rolling over toward the officers.  A total of six officers are believed to have fired at the suspect who was struck by multiple rounds at approximately 4:18 a.m., 25 minutes into this incident”, said Lendvay.

The suspect was pronounced dead on scene.  All six of the officers who fired were placed on paid administrative leave, which is standard JSO protocol following an officer-involved shooting. Neither the officers nor the suspect were publicly identified by Director Lendvay.

While officers didn’t identify the suspect they did say he was in his 30’s.

According to public records by the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office, the last officer-involved shooting happened on December 12, 2018 when there were two shootings involving police.  For all of 2018, JSO records documented six officer-involved shootings, four were fatal.  All are still pending review by the State Attorney's Office.