JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Gunfire is what led the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Officers to a Northside apartment complex where a woman said she was handcuffed and questioned in a case of mistaken identity.
The News4JAX I-TEAM has been looking into the incident since Monday after cell phone video of officers forcing their way into the woman’s house first surfaced.
According to a police report, a witness at the Calloway Cove apartment complex identified the shooting suspect as a Black female with short red hair. When police knocked on Khristi Jackson’s door, she said she told police she was not the person police were looking for.
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According to an officer who wrote the report, “I requested Jackson’s identification and asked if [redacted] was inside her apartment. Jackson was extremely confrontational and refused to identify herself.”
“They asked me, are you Mrs. Cooper, I said, no. They asked me did I know Mrs. Cooper, I said no. So as I get ready to shut my door being that I answered both questions, we don’t have nothing to talk about. I get ready to shut the door, and they barged their way in,” said Jackson, who is Black and also has short red hair.
Police said during the confrontation, officers told Jackson she was being detained, saying she still refused to identify herself and refused to allow them to take her into custody.
Police said Jackson’s reaction to the officers further led them to believe she was the suspect. Jackson however tells News4JAX a different story, saying she asked her family to get her identification.
“You can hear me in the video hollering, get my ID, get my ID, get my ID,” Jackson said.
Once in custody, police said Jackson identified herself and witnesses confirmed she was not the shooting suspect.
Burton said the body camera video of the incident will reveal precisely what was said, and whether or not police had probable cause to forcefully enter Johnson’s apartment.
“It goes back to the investigation that needs to take place. In a situation like this, there’s a lot of adrenaline, and people get tunnel vision. It’s a lot of commotion going on, we don’t even know if officers even heard that. We just have to see what their side of the story is and piece it all together,” Burton said.
One of the officers also wrote in the report that criminal charges for resisting arrest and opposing an officer would not be appropriate.
An administrative review is underway in the case and because force was used, Burton anticipates the case will also be reviewed by JSO’s Response To Resistance Board.
Jackson said she has hired an attorney.