JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A 49-year-old man who was seen stabbing himself in the San Marco area was shot by an officer Saturday afternoon when he approached two officers with a large knife raised above his head, according to the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office.
News4JAX photographer Josh Morgan said on his way to work, he witnessed the man stabbing himself on Atlantic Boulevard and Belote Place just after 2 p.m. and called 911.
Officers arrived around 2:16 p.m. and, at first, they couldn’t find the man with the knife, but they were pointed by a witness to the area of Belote Place and Atlantic Boulevard, JSO Chief of Investigations Alan Parker said.
REPLAY: Watch the full JSO news conference on the officer-involved shooting below:
They spotted the man sitting in the shade of a yard at the intersection, and when they pulled into the intersection, the man stood up and advanced toward the officers as they got out of their patrol cars, Parker said.
According to Parker, the man was coming out onto Atlantic Boulevard, just north of the intersection with Belote, and one officer was a little west of Belote, while the other was in the center median, directly north of Belote.
As the man came toward them into the roadway, he raised a large knife in his right hand above his head, and the officers yelled at him to drop the knife, stop and get on the ground.
“They gave him multiple commands. He chose not to obey for whatever reason, and they engaged the suspect at that time. He had a choice and made the wrong choice,” Parker said.
He said that at the same time, both officers reacted -- the one off to the west, Officer J.N. Easterly, used a stun gun, and the other, Officer J.A. Veale, fired his service pistol three times, striking the man in the thighs with each shot.
Veale and Easterly safely got the man handcuffed and into custody as rescue personnel arrived and began to render aid, Parker said.
The man was critically injured but was rushed to the hospital and is expected to survive, Parker said. In addition to the three gunshot wounds, the man suffered what appeared to be self-inflicted stab wounds to his stomach.
Parker said that both the use of a stun gun and the use of a firearm are within JSO policy for that type of potentially deadly encounter, explaining that once a person comes within 25 feet of an officer with an edged weapon, they are well within range to harm the officer before the officer can defend themselves.
The man who was shot has multiple previous arrests out of county and one prior drug charge in Jacksonville, Parker said. He has also been Baker Acted three times.
Because of his documented history of mental illness, News4JAX is not naming the man.