JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The State Attorney’s Office on Wednesday released body camera video showing what happened during a May incident in which a man was killed by a Jacksonville officer on the shoulder of J. Turner Butler Boulevard.
The chilling video appears to back up up the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office’s account of the deadly encounter.
According to police, John Allen Dunaway III, 61, attacked an officer who stopped to help him after a single-car crash at 3 a.m. May 26 on the highway near Hodges Boulevard.
After the crash, the video shows JSO Officer B. Ondriezek having a conversation with Dunaway and asking him what happened. Dunaway, who says he is shaken up, explains he was sleeping before he crashed.
The video, which was reviewed by News4Jax, shows Dunaway bending down next to his car and catching his breath before he suddenly charges at Ondriezek.
As Dunaway charges, Ondriezek backs away and deploys his Tazer twice. The Tazer connects, causing Dunaway to fall to the ground.
“Stop! Stop what you are doing right now! What are you doing?” Ondriezek can be heard screaming as Dunaway is on the ground.
“I don’t know!” Dunaway yells back.
Dunaway then gets up and runs back to his car while screaming “I got a gun," video shows.
The officer repeatedly yells “stop” while Dunaway reaches in the back seat of his car.
As Dunaway starts to emerge from the backseat, Ondriezek fires two shots and Dunaway falls to the ground. He was later pronounced dead.
No gun was found in Dunaway’s car, according to JSO.
Ondriezek, who police said has been with JSO for one year, was not injured. He was placed on administrative leave, which is standard procedure in police shootings.
It was Ondriezek’s first officer-involved shooting, and the State Attorney’s Office ruled that the shooting was justified but there’s still an internal, use-of-force investigation ongoing.
Mandarin police shooting video
The State Attorney’s Office also released bodycam footage from a police shooting that happened in November 2019.
JSO said a Jacksonville police officer responding to a report of a suicidal man in a Mandarin home shot and killed the man after he raised a knife in the officer’s direction twice.
In the video, the man, identified by family as 47-year-old Chris Ervie, can be seen holding a large knife in his hand as officers stand in the doorway of the home.
Officer B.L. Kelly can be heard in the video telling Ervie multiple times to drop the knife before another officer deploys his Tazer, but it has no effect on him.
“Don’t make me shoot you,” Kelly says.
Ervie can then be seen raising the knife while moving towards the officer before Kelly fires one fatal shot and Ervie falls to the ground. The video then goes black, apparently because the video has been redacted by the State Attorney’s Office.
Again, the video corroborated what JSO told News4Jax following the shooting.
Ervie’s sister, Jill Harris, told News4Jax it was Ervie’s fiancee who called police. She said Ervie was depressed and needed help.
The State Attorney’s Office ruled that the shooting was justified.
