A Jacksonville police officer shot a suspect during a foot chase following a stolen car pursuit that ended when the vehicle struck a patrol car and then crashed into a building.
The suspect — who appeared to be a teenage boy — was undergoing surgery after being taken in critical condition to the hospital Nov.1 following the shooting, said Chief Alan Parker of the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office during a news media briefing.
Parker said the suspect was shot as he reached into his pants — potentially for a gun — while running away from an officer who repeatedly ordered him to stop.
No gun or other weapon was found immediately by police following the shooting, but officers were still looking for it, Parker said.
Parker didn’t release the suspect’s name or age because the Sheriff’s Office hadn’t verified the information. An update about his condition wasn’t available early on Nov. 2.
“He did appear to be a young, Black teenage male,” Parker said.
The shooting happened about 7:45 p.m. in the 3100 block of Myrtle Avenue following a stolen car chase that ended when several people bailed out of the vehicle after it ran into a Sheriff’s Office patrol car and then crashed into a building.
Parker said one officer sustained a broken nose when the stolen car hit his patrol vehicle.
The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office said a Jacksonville police officer shot and wounded a suspect, possibly a teenager, following a stolen car chase about 7:45 p.m. Nov. 1 in the 3100 block of Myrtle Avenue in the city’s Moncrief Park neighborhood.
This is the 15th officer-involved shooting this year for the Sheriff’s Office. Ten of those previous shootings have been fatal, according to Times-Union records.
So far, the 2025 total is the worst since 2009, when the Sheriff’s Office had 15 officer-involved shootings including nine that were fatal, the Times-Union records show.
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Stolen car report leads to police chase, shooting
Parker said the circumstances surrounding the Nov. 1 shooting began when an officer saw a car near 8th Street matching the description of one reported stolen about 6 p.m. in the Brentwood neighborhood. That officer verified via its license plate that the car was reported stolen, he said.
Moncrief Park, where the shooting happened, is about two miles from Brentwood.
That initial officer started following the car as it traveled north on Moncrief Road, at about 13th Street. He called for backup and kept following it while waiting for additional officers to arrive.
As a second officer joined the first, the stolen car began speeding away from the two officers heading west on Martin Luther King Jr. Parkway. After turning onto Myrtle Avenue, the fleeing car struck a Sheriff’s Office patrol car that was in that area, he said.
Parker said the stolen car careened off the police car and then struck a commercial storefront. Several people who had been inside the car got out of the passenger side and ran away — leaving two people inside the vehicle.
Police detained those two people, while other officers ran after the people who fled on foot. One person was caught, but another kept going, he said.
Parker said the officer ultimately involved in the shooting kept chasing the fleeing suspect.
“As he was running, he was yelling, ‘Get your hands out of your pants! Stop reaching in your pants, I’ll shoot!’ He ended up engaging the suspect. He shot multiple times. The suspect was hit and went down,” Parker said.
Parker said officers quickly detained the wounded suspect, handcuffed him and began rendering aid to him. Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department first responders then rushed him to the hospital.
Parker identified the officer in the shooting as Jacob Cahill, who has been with the Sheriff’s Office for 3 1/2 years. This was Cahill’s second officer-involved shooting, he said.
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Parker said there appeared to be six or seven people inside the stolen car when it crashed into the building, of which at least four got out and ran. The two detained from inside the car were female, and one male suspect was caught running away, he said.
Parker also said it appears police know who the others were who ran away.
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Jacksonville police shoot suspect following stolen car chase