JACKSONVILLE BEACH, Fla. – New video and witness accounts are shedding light on the events that led an off-duty Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office officer to grab a teenager off an e-bike and slam him to the ground at Sunshine Skate Park over the weekend.
Surveillance video obtained by News4JAX shows a group of e-bike riders at the skate park shortly before the incident. Witnesses said the riders were refusing to leave the park, which prohibits e-bikes, and were taunting skateboarders who raised safety concerns.
The off-duty officer, identified as JSO officer Stephen Hicks, is now facing a misdemeanor battery charge. JSO confirmed Hicks turned himself in to the agency’s Integrity Unit, which is conducting an internal investigation. He has been placed on paid administrative leave.
Witnesses told News4JAX the incident happened during a birthday party at the park, when more than half a dozen e-bike riders were circling the concrete skating area. The park is designed exclusively for skateboarders, and posted signs prohibit bikes.
Skateboarder Garrett Mantle said the riders were weaving through children and other skaters, creating what he described as a dangerous situation.
“They were zipping through little kids, and I was worried about someone getting hurt,” Mantle said. “We tried to block them and asked them to go outside the park, but they wouldn’t leave and were heckling us with cameras on their bikes.”
Later in the afternoon, surveillance video shows Hicks grabbing a teenage rider off an e-bike and slamming him to the ground. Witnesses said Hicks identified himself as a police officer during the confrontation.
It remains unclear why Hicks was at the park or whether he had a child there at the time.
Mantle said while he understood the frustration, the officer’s actions went too far.
“I don’t think tackling the kid was right,” Mantle said. “But there’s a line you can cross, and those kids were crossing it.”
Another skateboarder, Chase Surrancy, said the rules banning bikes at the park need to be enforced, but violence is not the answer.
“I don’t think it’s justified that an adult slams a kid like that,” Surrancy said. “Kids shouldn’t be riding the bikes here, but it doesn’t make what the officer did right.”
Surrancy added that e-bikes can reach high speeds and pose a risk to children and skaters using the park.
The Jacksonville Beach Police Department is investigating the incident. A spokesperson urged park users to contact police if they see rules being violated, rather than confronting others themselves.