JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A man was killed by officers with the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office on Wednesday after he allegedly raised a knife and tried to stab a police dog following a 10-hour standoff.
It started when JSO responded to a domestic call at a home on Copper Springs Road on the Southside at 12:30 a.m. The report said a woman was trapped inside a bedroom and the man was “terrorizing her” with a knife. The woman eventually escaped through the bathroom window while the man remained inside. The woman was able to text a friend who called the police.
“She could not get out of the bedroom, he was known to be armed with a knife and has threatened her many times before,” Alan Parker, JSO Chief of Investigations said. “Officers were able to convince her and get her to go out through the master bathroom window.”
That’s when the standoff began. SWAT arrived around 5 a.m. in the Bentwater neighborhood and used a bullhorn to try to get the man to come out.
“I can hear police officers say ‘please surrender’ they called his name,” neighbor Franco Guerrero said. “I heard, ‘we don’t want to hurt you, surrender, take some fresh air.’”
According to police, the SWAT team launched gas into the home which sent the man running out.
When Sky4 flew over the scene, video captured the man running out of the back door, closing the gate of a fence. That forced JSO’s Urban Assault Vehicle to go through the fence. The man was then seen trapped between two homes when officers arrived to confront him with guns drawn. The K9 was then released and as the dog reached the man, he raised a knife to try and stab the police dog, police said. That’s when police say he was shot.
Sheriff T.K. Waters said the suspect had a recent history of warrants for domestic battery, aggravated assault, stalking and armed burglary. Waters said the woman had tried to get away from him, but he found her new address through social media.
“You want to try to do everything you can to end it safely and peacefully as possible without the loss of life,” Waters said. “But, unfortunately, because of the circumstances, it ended the way it ended.”
Police have not released the identity of the man killed, but did say he’s a 38-year-old man with prior arrests that include carrying a concealed weapon and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.
Three separate women have filed domestic violence injunctions against the man.
Watch JSO’s update on the standoff below: