18-year-old in Jacksonville police shootout self-inflicts gunshot wound

The medical examiner’s office did not clarify whether the self-inflicted gunshot wound was the cause of death.

The start of the video shows three people inside the car. An officer approaches from the driver’s side.

Officer 1: “Do you have marijuana in the car?” Hemp in the car? Did you smoke a bit or something like that?

The responses of the three inside the car were not audible.

Officer 1: “Is there something in the car that we need to be worried about? Do you mind if we check it out really quickly and you get on the right track? “

The officer explains that because he smelled the smell of marijuana coming from inside, he probably had reason to search. The driver of the car gets out and is handcuffed while the other two – including Gregory – stay in the car.

A second officer looks into the car and sees Gregory, who appears to be smoking something, starting to reach under the seat.

“Hey, don’t go underneath,” the second officer shouts. “Stop f ****** reaching!”

“I’m taking my phone,” Gregory said while looking at the officer with one hand still under the seat.

The officers at the scene all started yelling at Gregory to show his hands, one of them yelling, “You’re about to get shot!”

Repeatedly, Gregory asks “please” to grab his phone. He then begins to shout at the man who was taken in the cruiser: “I love you, brother! I love you! Tell my mom I love her too!

As Gregory continues to scream, he appears to have a cell phone on his left ear. Officers, guns drawn, repeatedly say “relax”.

Officer 2: “Relax, man. Hey, relax. Pull your hand out from under the seat. “

As the exchange continues for a few minutes, the situation worsens.

“Shoot me!” Gregory starts screaming several times – at least a dozen times. “F ****** kill me!”

Officer 2: “Listen to me. I promise if you raise your hand with nothing in it, you won’t get hurt.

“These officers are begging this young man,” said News4Jax crime and security expert Ken Jefferson. “He refused to cooperate. He has his hand, his right hand under the seat.

After several minutes of back and forth, an officer approaches the car with a K-9. The young man in the back seat of the car is kidnapped.

“Leave me! Leave me!” Gregory shouts.

The video then shows Gregory put his head between his legs. A shot is fired in the car and Gregory’s head is thrown back. The officers then shot the car several times.

“Right before the police started shooting, he leans in, his head is down and his head is raised sharply,” Jefferson explained, while reviewing the video. “If he’s hit in the back, his head won’t turn around like that.” So that leads me to believe the medical examiner’s report that it was a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office head of investigations TK Waters initially said in a statement Tuesday that officers stopped the car for not keeping a single lane.

Waters said the police tried to defuse the situation. He said after several minutes of trying to speak with the passenger who refused to comply with requests to get out of the car, four officers fired shots.

The officers, the driver and the passenger in the back seat were not injured in the shooting.