JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A man who had been spotted in a stolen vehicle before running from police was fatally shot Tuesday night when he pulled out a handgun during a foot chase with officers, according to the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office.
JSO said one of the officers chasing the man, whose name has not yet been released, attempted to use his Taser twice during the chase, but it’s unclear if either attempt connected.
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The man -- who ran through several backyards and jumped fences during the chase -- then pulled out a handgun, and the two officers who were chasing him fired multiple shots, JSO said.
“Enough (shots) to end the threat,” Undersheriff Shawn Coarsey said during a briefing about the officer-involved shooting.
The man died in the backyard of a home at the scene, which is near I-295 and Pulaski Road on the city’s Northside.
JSO said the incident that escalated into the deadly confrontation began around 11:15 p.m. as a stolen car investigation when officers, who were in an unmarked car, spotted a vehicle that had been reported stolen.
According to investigators, the officers recognized the man driving as the same man who had been seen driving that same stolen vehicle -- with a different license plate -- two weeks earlier. The man managed to get away during that incident, and the officers made note that he had a firearm at the time.
“The individual has been switching out tags, but it’s still the same stolen vehicle with different tags on it,” Coarsey said.
The officers in the unmarked car followed the driver of the stolen vehicle to a home on Kaleel Road, while calling for backup. Shortly after pulling into a driveway on Kaleel Road, the driver jumped out of the car and ran away and was chased by two officers, JSO said.
Neither officer was hurt during the incident, which marks the fourth officer-involved shooting of 2026.
Last month, Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters addressed a similar trend in these cases, saying each involved an armed suspect confronting officers.
“Don’t pull guns on police, because all of these cases — all of these situations — dealt with firearms," Waters said at the time. “Don’t pull guns on police — you are going to get shot. If you pull a gun -- you don’t have to shoot it first -- if you pull a gun, you are going to get shot.”
Waters said last month that “it’s a dangerous world.”
“We are not playing games here. This isn’t tiddlywinks; this is real life,” Waters said. “If you show up with a gun, it’s going to be a shootout; you are going to get shot.”
The State Attorney’s Office is investigating the shooting, and the two officers involved -- Officer M. Higginbotham and Sgt. M. Howell -- have been placed on administrative leave, per protocol.
Watch the full briefing below: