In the fourth Jacksonville police shooting involving a mental health crisis this year, a 22-year-old woman was critically wounded after the Sheriff’s Office said she fired a shot at officers.
It began with a call at about 6 p.m. Sunday, June 7, to a home in the 2900 block East Kline Road off Southside Boulevard near Beach Boulevard where it was reported a woman pointed a gun at her grandfather. Undersheriff Shawn Coarsey said officers met the owner of the home who said their granddaughter who lives in the back of the home in a shed had gotten into a confrontation with them and threatened them with a firearm.
Officers tried to get her to come out, and she eventually ran toward the front of the house. They gave chase with their guns drawn, giving her commands to show her hands. But she kept putting her hands in her waist, and an officer used a Taser on her, Coarsey said.
“She defeated that Taser and pulled a handgun from her waistband,” he said. “She was able to fire one shot at our officers. They returned fire striking her numerous times.”
No officers were injured.
The undersheriff identified the suspect as Kaiyan Alex Atkinson. Coarsey said she had eight documented mental illness calls to the same address. He also said her driver’s license shows her as a male, but she is a biological female.
“Just to be clear, they had this person at gunpoint, they tased her, and she was able to stil able to defeat that Taser and pull that handgun from her waist and get a shot off at the officers, and that’s when they returned fire,” he said.
In response to whether a mental health expert was called to assist, Coarsey said, “Anytime there’s an armed subject that’s in some type of mental crisis, we will never introduce a civilian in that.”
Sheriff T.K. Waters supported his officers actions.
“They attempted to talk this individual down several times; she was having none of it,” he said. “I think what is most important to point out is though we had our weapons drawn in a lower ready position, she was still able to draw a pistol, fire off a round before we returned fire striking her.
“It’s difficult to say why these things happen the way that they do,” he continued. “We try everything that we can try to make sure they end peacefully. Unfortunately they dictate what happens, she dictated at that point that through her actions we were going to have to return fire and we did, and fortunately officers weren’t shot. … But I’m encouraged by the fact that they did everything that they could to try to stop her from taking those type of actions. But she pulled a gun on her grandfather also, so if she’ll pull a gun on her grandfather, she’ll pull a gun on a police officer. It think that’s where the emphasis should lie.”
The officers were identified as five- and seven-year veterans J. Lenn and N. Iezzi, both their first shootings.
The police shooting is the 11 this year with six ending in the suspect dead. At the same time last year there were nine with five killed, according to Times-Union records. Last year also ended with 17 police shootings, the most since 2008.
(This is a developing story.)
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: JSO: Woman with mental health issues shot at officers before being shot
Reporting by Scott Butler, Jacksonville Florida Times-Union / Florida Times-Union
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By Scott Butler, Jacksonville Florida Times-Union | USA TODAY Network
