On their first day on the job, three Jacksonville sheriff’s officers shot and killed a knife-wielding man threatening suicide-by-cop, the Sheriff’s Office said.
It was the second fatal police shooting in just over 48 hours.
It began with a domestic violence call about 10 p.m. Feb. 12 involving an armed man making threats to kill himself and his wife. Undersheriff Shawn Coarsey said the suspect left before officers arrived. While on scene, officers spoke with the victim and made contact with the suspect over the phone. He warned them he would not be going back to prison and threatened that they would have to kill him.
The victim told officers the suspect may have gone to a family member’s home on Fox Tail Lane near Old Kings Road, where they located him in a vehicle about 12:30 a.m. Feb. 13. They had a brief conversation with him and asked him to exit the vehicle.
“As he was exiting the vehicle, he grabbed a large knife,” the Sheriff’s Office said. “The suspect approached officers with the knife and threatened to have them shoot him. Officers attempted to create space between themselves and the man, but he continued to advance towards them, still holding the knife.”
All three officers shot him several times and he did not survive. The Sheriff’s Office identified him as 62-year-old Jose Ernesto Cabrera. His family told News4Jax he suffered from mental health issues.
The officers were W. Morris, G. Griffis and R. Rhoden.
“When it rises to that level, they have a couple of choices. You could let that person stab you, or you could take action and end the threat,” Sheriff Waters said. “… They’ve been very well-trained, they all saw the same threat and they all took the same action.”
This was the city’s fifth police shooting of 2026 and third with a fatality. At this time last year, there was one non-lethal police shooting. The Sheriff’s Office ended 2025 with 17 officer-involved shootings, 11 of which were fatal.
(This story has been updated with some minor adjustments.)
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: 1st day on the job, 3 officers shoot and kill armed, suicidal man
Reporting by Scott Butler, Jacksonville Florida Times-Union / Florida Times-Union
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
