An 11-year-old boy was lying in bed playing a video game when he was struck by a bullet apparently fired by one of a pair of Flagler County Sheriff’s deputies who were target practicing in rural western Flagler County.
The Sheriff’s Office is investigating the Aug. 27 incident in which the boy was injured by the .556-caliber round that punched through his bedroom wall in a home on Hazelnut Street in a section of the county known as the Mondex, or Daytona North, west of Bunnell.
Flagler County Sheriff’s Deputy Bryan Jackson lives in the area on Mahogany Boulevard. He and his daughter, Kailen, who is also a deputy, had been target shooting on his property with her new rifle, which was issued by the sheriff’s office.
Flagler County Sheriff’s Office Chief of Staff Mark Strobridge said in an interview that the agency would conduct an investigation and then forward the results to the State Attorney’s Office, which would decide if any charges were warranted.
After that, the sheriff’s office would conduct an internal affairs investigation looking at whether any policies were violated, Strobridge said.
The report stated there are at least four houses between the 11-year-old’s and Jackson’s homes.
The boy said he was laying in his bed about 6:20 p.m. playing a video game with his head propped up by pillows when he heard a “loud crack” from outside the room, according to a report. He said he felt something burn his neck and swatted at it with his wrist, the report stated.
The boy said it sounded like “the projectile hit metal and stopped after burning him,” the report stated. He said he did not hear anything before or after the burn.
He told his mother, who checked the bedroom and found a hole in the top right hand corner of the room. The projectile had knocked a pair of jeans off a dresser.
She screamed for her husband, who walked over to neighbors he knew were “avid shooters” and asked if they had been firing weapons. Among those was Bryan Jackson.
Bryan Jackson went to the scene and was described as “extremely apologetic,” the report stated. Bryan Jackson said he and his daughter were target practicing with her new rifle, firing at a small berm on his property.
Bryan Jackson said “the bullet must have ricocheted off the target and landed in the home,” the report stated.
The boy’s parents called 911 and a responding deputy took pictures of a hole in the wall of the home and the jeans the bullet went through, the report stated. But the deputy did not find the bullet.
The 11-year-old boy’s sister said she had seen a man on Hazelnut Street with a long gun on a stand but could not confirm who the man was. No one else at the scene mentioned the man.
Flagler deputies on duty, despite shooting
Both Jacksons are on normal duty right now, the sheriff’s office stated in an email.
“Master Deputy Bryan Scott Jackson is a member of the Community Engagement Unit. Kailen Jackson is a trainee as a patrol deputy in the Community Policing Division,” according to the sheriff’s office.
Bryan Jackson was in the news in June when he testified at his son, Jayden Jackson’s sentencing in Bunnell. Jayden Jackson, 23, pleaded no contest to a charge of leaving the scene of a crash with death. He was adjudicated guilty and sentenced to five years in prison followed by five years’ probation.
Is target shooting in neighborhood legal?
Flagler County does not regulate private shooting ranges or firing guns in residential areas because it is preempted by state law from doing so, according to an email from Deputy County Attorney Sean Moylan forwarded by county spokeswoman Julie Murphy.
Moylan cited state law which states that firing a gun for recreation or target practice in a primarily residential area with a density of one or more dwellings per acre is a first-degree misdemeanor. But the law also includes exceptions such as self-defense or if the person is performing official duties or “If, under the circumstances, the discharge does not pose a reasonably foreseeable risk to life, safety or property.”
In 2014, a Volusia County grand jury declined to indict a man who had been trying to shoot a bird when he accidentally shot and killed a neighbor, according to a News-Journal story.
This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Flagler Sheriff’s deputies target shooting near Bunnell hit, injure 11-year-old boy
Reporting by Frank Fernandez, Daytona Beach News-Journal / The Daytona Beach News-Journal
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