Jacksonville Florida Sheriff's Officers Take Down Man Attacking Pregant Woman Shielding Child

Law enforcement shot and killed a man who was found attacking a woman protecting a child in a bedroom after multiple rounds of a Taser had no effect on him, Florida authorities said.

The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office got a call about a domestic incident at a home at about 11 p.m. July 15, and officers followed the sounds of screaming to a locked bedroom door, according to a news release.

Officers forced their way in and said they found the bedroom room in disarray and a man attacking a woman who was pregnant with his child as she was holding another young child.

“Upon kicking the door in, they observed a male on top of a female pulling her hair as she held and appeared to be shielding a child,” officers wrote in the release. “The officers gave several commands for the male to release the female and back away, but he refused and continued to aggressively attack her.”

Chief Alan Parker said during a news conference that officers used a Taser on the man to allow the woman and child to get away.

But the man kept yelling and wasn’t compliant with officers’ commands, so they backed out of the room and tried to get him to come out and surrender over the next 30 minutes or so, Parker said.

Eventually, he came out of the bedroom, but when officers tried to take him into custody, he fought them off, and they used a Taser on him again, multiple times, according to Parker.

“In the end he fights through those Tasings and he gets up and attacks the officers, and there’s a group of officers there this time,” Parker said. “He knocks one over and into a table and drives the other one all the way through the kitchen continuing to attack.”

That’s when two officers and a sergeant shot him, the chief said.

Fire rescue was already at the home and started treating the man immediately, but he died at a hospital, the chief said.

Sheriff T.K. Waters didn’t say exactly how many times officers used the Taser on him, but he said “it was a lot.”

During the roughly 45-minute incident, the man was chewing on the woman’s hair that he had ripped out and was speaking incoherently, according to Parker.

“I don’t know whether it was drugs or whether there was a mental situation that’s going on,” Waters said. “It’s very difficult to tell just by watching and looking. It was very bizarre, very dangerous.”

The investigation into the shooting is ongoing.

If you are experiencing domestic violence and need someone to talk to, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline for support at 1-800-799-7233 or text “START” to 88788.

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