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A Florida cop thought an acorn falling on his car was gunfire so he hit the ground and proceeded to empty his clip into the car… with a perp sitting inside of it.
In video which captured the entire bizarre scene, Okaloosa County sheriff’s deputy Jesse Hernandez had just completed arresting a man near Fort Walton Beach who had allegedly been sending threatening texts and placed him inside the police cruiser.
As Hernandez was walking past the passenger side of his car he heard what he believed was a gunshot. It wasn’t. It was an acorn bouncing off of the vehicle.
Thinking that he was under fire, Hernandez began screaming “Shots fired! Shots fired!” and ran away from the cop car.
After getting a short distance behind the vehicle, Hernandez drops to the ground and began filling his own vehicle with bullets.
His partner, who didn’t hear a “gunshot,” also began shooting at the police car.
Amazingly, despite appearing to empty his entire clip into the police car and being shot at by his partner, the man who was cuffed and sitting in the back seat, 22-year-old Marquis Jackson, was unharmed… at least physically. Mentally and emotionally are a whole other story, as he told local media that he was “damaged” by the wild ordeal.
After an investigation into the bizarre shooting, Hernandez’s partner was cleared of any wrongdoing as she was just reacting to him shooting at the vehicle.
Hernandez, on the other hand, was found to have unreasonably used deadly force, but was not charged with any crime. He was found to have violated the office’s policy regarding excessive use of control to resistance.
He resigned from the Sheriff’s Department shortly thereafter.
“We are very thankful Mr. Jackson wasn’t injured and we have no reason to think former Deputy Hernandez acted with any malice,” the Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement after the investigation was completed. “We are limited in further response due to pending litigation. But let this be clear, we understand this situation was traumatic for Mr. Jackson and all involved and have incorporated this officer-involved shooting into our training to try to ensure nothing similar happens again.”
The Sheriff’s Office also added, “Though his actions were ultimately not warranted, we do believe he felt his life was in immediate peril and his response was based off the totality of circumstances surrounding this fear.”
[TMZ]