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A screenshot of a presentation from State Attorney Melissa Nelson\u2019s office about the circumstances that led to the November police shooting of a 14-year-old boy. Provided.<\/p>\nA screenshot of a presentation from State Attorney Melissa Nelson\u2019s office about the circumstances that led to the November police shooting of a 14-year-old boy. Provided.<\/p>\n
A communication breakdown within the Jacksonville Sheriff\u2019s Office dispatch system led multiple officers on a frenzied, hour-long search for the wrong car in the wake of a fatal drive-by shooting last month in Northwest Jacksonville. Operating under incorrect information, a JSO officer shot a fleeing, unarmed 14-year-old boy in the back four times, leaving him in critical condition. The boy had nothing to do with the shooting.<\/p>\n
State Attorney Melissa Nelson said this week the officer, Jacob Cahill, did not\u00a0violate any laws by shooting the boy, who survived, because he was working in good faith on outdated information.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A black Kia Optima that the boy and his friends stole that evening from a DoorDash driver for a joy ride was initially suspected of being involved in a nearby shooting, but officers working the shooting scene quickly realized those crimes were not related.<\/p>\n
For more than an hour after that revelation, a task force of officers who specialize in catching violent felons continued to roam the districts \u2013 and monitored a citywide surveillance system \u2013 for the stolen Kia under the pretense that it was the shooting vehicle.<\/p>\n
If dispatchers had relayed to the task force that the black Kia was not linked to the drive-by, Nelson said there would not have been a full-fledged pursuit of the four teens, which damaged the Kia and one JSO cruiser, which crashed into a nearby building.<\/p>\n
Cahill, however, who was a member of that task force, didn\u2019t know the Kia was no longer the suspect vehicle in the drive-by shooting, so when the 14-year-old boy fled from the scene, he believed he was chasing a potential shooter, Nelson said.<\/p>\n
Nelson characterized the circumstances as a \u201cperfect storm\u201d and an \u201cunusual and unfortunate alignment of circumstances,\u201d but the foul-up also revealed a systemic and critical failure in the way JSO dispatchers communicate with officers on the street.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Jacksonville attorney Matt Kachergus, who is representing the family of the 14-year-old boy, who The Tributary is not naming, said in a written statement that the family is disappointed that their child was shot multiple times while Cahill is likely to not be held accountable for the use of deadly force.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u201cAlthough the State Attorney has determined there will be no accountability for this officer, the family will seek to hold him accountable in our system of justice,\u201d Kachergus said.<\/p>\n
Unclear staffing<\/p>\n
It\u2019s unclear how many people work in JSO\u2019s dispatch command center and whether it\u2019s adequately staffed to handle the some 1 million incoming calls each year. Although JSO\u2019s $640 million budget is the largest expense in the city\u2019s general fund, it\u2019s also the hardest to scrutinize because the sheriff has wide latitude to unilaterally shift money and positions around as he sees fit.<\/p>\n