An Okaloosa County (Florida) police officer nearly shot a handcuffed suspect in his car in November 2023, after an acorn that fell on the hood made him think it was a gunshot, according to information from
TF1
.
It was a close call for this young 24-year-old suspect, arrested by police officer Jesse Hernandez and handcuffed in his patrol car.
On the video of the officer made public by the local sheriff, the sound of the acorn hitting the car barely has time to ring out.
Believing it was a gunshot, the police officer immediately starts running, shouting
“Gunshots!
Fire !"
.
He falls to the ground, rolls, gets up and brandishes his weapon which he points in the direction of the vehicle.
In a few seconds, he empties the contents of his magazine, continuing to sound the alarm even though no one is aiming at him:
“I'm hit!
I am touched !"
.
“A truly dramatic moment”
Alerted by her cries, a colleague of the police officer who was outside the vehicle also took out her weapon and emptied its magazine.
Miraculously, the suspect, Marquis Jackson, arrested for a simple case of theft and unarmed at the time of the incident, escaped without a scratch.
Agent Hernandez, for his part, resigns from his post.
The eight-week investigation into the case found him guilty of excessive use of deadly force.
“I
recognize that this was a truly dramatic and traumatic moment for Mr. Jackson and we are so relieved and grateful that he was not injured
,” Sheriff Eric Aden said, before publicly apologizing.