JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office has posted body camera footage of a deadly police-involved shooting of a 34-year-old man in the Panama Park neighborhood that was ruled justified by the 4th Circuit State Attorney’s Office.
A medical examiner determined Justin Reed was shot 12 times during the armed confrontation with the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office outside his home on Nov. 4, 2020. He died of his injuries.
According to an investigative report, Det. I. Fields parked an undercover SUV on the street near Reed’s home to wait for detectives who were investigating gang activity to arrive. Officer G.A. Taylor was seated in the passenger seat while Officer M.L. Mullis sat in the back.
Reed, an ex-convict, is seen on surveillance film coming out of the house within minutes of their arrival, armed with an assault rifle. JSO says officers identify themselves, and investigators say when he lifted the rifle, they shot and killed him.
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The bodycam footage posted by the Sheriff’s Office is from an officer sitting in the front seat. Investigators say Reed could be seen hitting the hood of the vehicle with the barrel of the rifle before raising the weapon in the direction of the officers.
(Body camera video below provided by the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office. Footage that some may find graphic in nature has been partially blurred. Viewer discretion advised.)
JSO notes that the officer in the front passenger seat of the vehicle lowers the front window so that Reed could see his tactical vest with police markings on it.
The officer who was wearing the bodycam that captured the footage posted by JSO did not shoot, but two others did. The bodycam has a pre-event buffer that automatically records 30 seconds before the officer activates the camera. As explained by JSO, it essentially allows the camera to always record video, but not audio, of the preceding 30 seconds.
Outside the vehicle in the seconds following the shooting, an officer can be heard saying, “turn the cameras on.” One officer demands someone get on the radio and call for additional help.
Apart from the State Attorney’s Office’s ruling, JSO’s Response to Resistance Board has determined the shooting followed departmental guidelines for the use of deadly force. The SAO found that Reed “posed an imminent threat of death or great bodily harm” to the officers involved, who shot the 34-year-old in self-defense, according to the report.
Reed, whose criminal history included four felony convictions and 27 misdemeanor convictions, had a warrant out for his arrest in a domestic violence case at the time of the shooting. Because of his felony convictions, Reed was not allowed to have a gun. A toxicological screen completed as part of the autopsy also found the presence of THC, a marijuana metabolite, and bath salts in Reed’s system, according to the report.
The shooting marked the first time Officers Mullis and Taylor, both of whom have been employed by JSO since 2017, fired their weapons in the line of duty.