{"id":376957,"date":"2026-08-20T22:28:07","date_gmt":"2026-08-20T22:28:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/376957\/"},"modified":"2026-08-20T22:28:07","modified_gmt":"2026-08-20T22:28:07","slug":"family-of-22-year-old-shot-and-killed-by-jso-officer-calls-for-release-of-body-cam-footage-action-news-jax","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/376957\/","title":{"rendered":"Family of 22-year-old shot and killed by JSO officer calls for release of body cam footage \u2013 Action News Jax"},"content":{"rendered":"

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 The family of 22-year-old Asia Bennett, who was shot and killed during an officer-involved shooting on August 11th<\/a>, is calling for the release of body camera footage.<\/p>\n

They\u2019ve retained civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who claims witness testimony doesn\u2019t align with the official narrative put out by JSO. <\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone usually gets a comeback story. We\u2019re never gonna hear Asia\u2019s comeback story,\u201d said Anthony Gerhold.<\/p>\n

Those were the emotional words of 22-year-old Asia Bennett\u2019s uncle, who said his niece\u2019s chance to escape an abusive relationship was cut short when she was shot and killed by a JSO officer.<\/p>\n

>>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <<<<\/a><\/p>\n

According to JSO, Bennett refused multiple commands to drop a knife she was holding and was shot twice while trying to approach an officer who had responded to a domestic call at her home.<\/p>\n

But Crump claimed witnesses recalled hearing Bennett screaming for help when officers arrived and that the two shots were fired in quick succession.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow do you justify the second shot when she\u2019s on the ground, and she never gets up to her feet?\u201d said Crump.<\/p>\n

Crump also criticized the sheriff for highlighting Bennett\u2019s previous arrest for domestic violence following the shooting, as court records show those charges were dropped.<\/p>\n

Crump claimed that\u2019s because she was determined to be the victim in that case.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Bennett\u2019s boyfriend Joshua Smith, who was there the night of the shooting, was convicted of battering Bennett last year.<\/p>\n

\u201cAsia wasn\u2019t a threat. Asia was the victim. She was a victim of domestic violence,\u201d said Crump.<\/p>\n

When asked about the discrepancies in Bennett\u2019s criminal history and the claims witnesses heard Bennett crying for help, JSO simply told us those questions are part of an ongoing investigation.<\/p>\n

The family is calling for JSO to release the body camera footage of the August 11th officer-involved shooting before Bennett\u2019s funeral on Monday.<\/p>\n

We asked whether JSO would consider honoring that request.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Jacksonville Sheriff\u2019s Office will release body-worn camera footage within 21 days of a critical incident, absent an investigative prohibition, in accordance with JSO policy and Sheriff Waters\u2019 commitment to transparency,\u201d said a JSO spokesperson in an emailed statement.<\/p>\n

Despite Crump claiming Bennett was the victim of domestic violence on the day of the shooting, JSO confirmed her boyfriend, Smith, was not arrested that night and was listed as the victim in the incident report.<\/p>\n

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Action News Jax Top Stories<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 The family of 22-year-old Asia Bennett, who was shot and killed during an officer-involved shooting…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":376958,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[14189,643,151731,8313,149863,107473,149864,68626,969,116,118,117,6458,971,110481,55599,151732,1872,634,59052],"class_list":["post-376957","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-action","tag-action_news_jack","tag-anthony_gerhold","tag-asia","tag-asia_bennett","tag-ben_crump","tag-bennett","tag-crump","tag-jack","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news","tag-jacksonville_sheriffs_office","tag-jake","tag-jake_snowan","tag-jake_stan","tag-joshua_smith","tag-jso","tag-local","tag-sheriff_waters"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376957","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=376957"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376957\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/376958"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=376957"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=376957"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=376957"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}