A 16-year-old boy was rushed to a local hospital with life-threatening injuries Monday morning after shooting himself during an encounter with the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office. Sheriff T.K. Waters and Chief of Homeland Security Mike Shell detailed the event during a public briefing.
The incident began around 6:30 a.m. when JSO’s 911 dispatch received a call from a concerned mother stating her son was armed with a handgun and experiencing a suicidal crisis. Responding officers arrived at the family’s residence, but the teenager was not on the premises.
Within 30 minutes, officers located the teen outside a movie theater off Philips Highway near Shad Road. As officers approached and began talking to him, the teen pulled out a handgun. One officer discharged a Taser and another officer fired multiple gunshots in response. Neither officer’s weapon hit the teenager.
The armed teen remained in the parking lot, prompting a response from the SWAT Team around 8 a.m. due to potential safety risks to nearby businesses and officers. Members of the Behavioral Crisis Response Unit also arrived at the scene, where mental health clinicians spoke with the teen over the phone for more than an hour as SWAT personnel developed a strategy to safely disarm him.
At approximately 9:15 a.m., SWAT officers initiated a plan to nudge the teen toward the eastern side of the parking lot where additional officers were positioned to disarm him. Officers deployed a pepper ball onto the ground near the teen to encourage him to move east. Immediately following the pepper ball deployment, the teen turned the handgun on himself and fired.
Authorities transported the teenager to a nearby hospital for treatment. Officials have not released his name, but confirmed he is a white male who was previously expelled from school in 2023 for making threats toward a middle school.
The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office Cold Case Unit has taken over the investigation into the incident.
“I don’t think anyone wants an ending like this obviously,” Chief Shell said during the press briefing. “And if there are people in distress, we want them to reach out and get help and get resources.”
If you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis, help is available. Call or text 988 or chat at 988lifeline.org to reach the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline.
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