{"id":185663,"date":"2025-08-29T22:07:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-29T22:07:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/185663\/"},"modified":"2025-08-29T22:07:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-29T22:07:09","slug":"a-man-holding-a-knife-pointed-it-and-told-a-jso-officer-to-back-up-the-officer-shot-him-as-he-ran-away-video-shows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/185663\/","title":{"rendered":"A man holding a knife pointed it and told a JSO officer to \u2018back up.\u2019 The officer shot him as he ran away, video shows"},"content":{"rendered":"

JACKSONVILLE, Fla.<\/strong> \u2013 The Jacksonville Sheriff\u2019s Office released on Friday body camera footage showing an officer killing a knife-wielding man who was suspected of arson<\/a> amid a mental health episode earlier this month.<\/p>\n

According to JSO, K-9 Officer Caleb Bumgarner shot and killed 30\u2011year\u2011old Brian Gillis after Gillis pointed a knife at the officer and told him to \u201cback up\u201d twice while Gillis was on the sidewalk and Bumgarner was in the street. Body\u2011camera footage released by JSO shows<\/a> Bumgarner telling Gillis to drop the knife and then immediately firing multiple shots at Gillis as he was running away on East 25th Street, near Buckman Street.<\/p>\n

Disclaimer: The video released by JSO contains graphic images that may be disturbing for some viewers. Discretion is advised.<\/b><\/p>\n

According to JSO, the incident began as a call for help from Gillis\u2019 mother in the morning of Aug. 13.<\/p>\n

JSO said Gillis\u2019 mother called police around 7 a.m. to request that Gillis be held for a mental health evaluation after he said he had set fire to the exterior wall of a neighbor\u2019s home overnight on East 16th Street.<\/p>\n

The fire was extinguished, and the residents who came out of the house were not harmed.<\/p>\n

JSO said an officer and a partnered mental health clinician arrived and spoke with Gillis\u2019 family and neighbors. <\/p>\n

\u201cFamily and neighbors reported he appeared disassociated from reality during the event,\u201d JSO said.<\/p>\n

The responding officer learned Gillis left the home soon after he arrived.<\/p>\n

Other officers arrived and set up a perimeter for about an hour and a half, according to JSO. As they were about to break it down because they couldn\u2019t find Gillis, Officer Bumgarner saw Gillis walking down the sidewalk and attempted to stop him by calling him by name, the video shows. <\/p>\n

\u201cBrian, come here, you\u2019re gonna get dog bit!\u201d he yelled to Gillis. <\/p>\n

JSO Chief Alan Parker said Gillis took off running with the knife, then Bumgarner drove to catch up with him, which was seen in the video. <\/p>\n

Bumgarner got out of the car, pulled out his Taser, and Gillis, who was on the sidewalk, can be seen pointing the knife at the officer, and saying, \u201cBack up, back up.\u201d <\/p>\n

Knife recovered at the scene of the officer-involved shooting. (Copyright 2025 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.)<\/p>\n

The officer then dropped his Taser, grabbed his gun and told Gillis to \u201cdrop the knife,\u201d according to JSO.<\/p>\n

\u201cGillis did not comply with his directive, and Officer Bumgarner fired his gun, striking Gillis,\u201d JSO Chief of Professional Standards Erica Weber said in a video produced by JSO.<\/p>\n

The video shows Bumgarner pointing his gun and demanding that Gillis drop the knife, and about a second later, as Gillis is running away, Bumgarner fires six times, causing Gillis to fall to the sidewalk with the knife still in his hand. <\/p>\n

Parker said Gillis threatened him by telling him to back up and pushing the knife out in the direction of Bumgarner.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt that point, [Bumgarner] goes to lethal force,\u201d Parker said in a briefing the day of the shooting.<\/p>\n

Soon after the shooting, more officers arrived and disarmed Gillis before giving him medical aid.<\/p>\n

Gillis died at the scene. <\/p>\n

According to JSO, Gillis did not have a criminal history but had been Baker Acted multiple times.<\/p>\n

Bumgarner has been with JSO for 11 years, and it was his first officer-involved shooting.<\/p>\n

The officer is also among three officers who are being sued over allegations that they violated a suspect\u2019s constitutional rights when they deployed a K-9 on him during a 2021 arrest, leaving him with a fractured foot that became infected while he was in jail. The suspect\u2019s robbery charges were later cleared.<\/p>\n

MORE | <\/b>JSO has track record of excessive force, including K-9 misuse, lawsuit says: The Tributary<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

JSO said the State Attorney\u2019s Office will independently review the officer-involved shooting to determine if Bumgarner\u2019s actions were legal. Once that investigation is complete, JSO will conduct an internal review to ensure the officer acted within policy.<\/p>\n

After that, a Response to Resistance Board will convene, and the findings will be submitted to the Sheriff for final review. <\/p>\n

Copyright 2025 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 The Jacksonville Sheriff\u2019s Office released on Friday body camera footage showing an officer killing a…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":185664,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5136],"tags":[5229,3188,723,7310,8423,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-185663","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jacksonville","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-fl","10":"tag-florida","11":"tag-jacksonville","12":"tag-jso","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-united-states-of-america","15":"tag-unitedstates","16":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","17":"tag-us","18":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115114334185096042","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185663","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=185663"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185663\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/185664"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=185663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=185663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=185663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}