Newly-released police body cam footage shows the moment officers shoot a South Florida man who steals one of their tasers and points it at them, after he had just been rescued from crashing his car into a lake.
Jahmal Parker, 29, was shot in the leg by Miami-Dade police officers on March 29, along Interstate 95, just south of Florida City.
In the minutes leading up to Parker being shot, he takes a taser from the officer closest to him and runs off with it, before pointing it in their direction from afar after he’s seen ignoring multiple officers’ orders.
The footage was released as part of Parker’s criminal trial, who has been charged with six felonies, one misdemeanor and two driving-related infractions.
Parker had crashed his car through a fence and wound up in a lake, before police were called to the scene by a Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission officer who said Parker had been refusing orders, the Miami Herald reported.
Parker had just been in a collision with another vehicle shortly before noon, near the 114 Mile Marker on I-95, which ultimately sent his vehicle with him still inside careening into a small lake, with its front end completely submerged in water.
Another driver stopped to helped Parker out of the vehicle, to safety.
When Miami-Dade police arrived on the scene, Parker was stoic and expressionless as he refused their orders to sit down, standing against the rear doors of an ambulance.
Sit down,’ one officer says. ‘Sit down, dude. Do yourself a favor, just sit down, man. This isn’t, like, what you think it is. You just need to sit down right now.’
The officers can be heard telling Parker that he needs medical treatment, but Parker keeps refusing.
‘We just want to relax, make sure everybody’s OK, and then we’re done,’ a second officer says, who can be seen in the video.
It sounds like Parker then says, ‘I gotta sleep,’ to which the officer on camera replies, ‘No, you’re not. you’re bleeding.’
‘No, I’m not,’ Parker says,.
‘Yeah, you are, look at your hand,’ the officer on camera says.
The officer then steps back, out of view of the body cam, and says, ‘Sit down or you’re gonna get lit up,’ while pointing his taser at Parker. Gesturing with it as he speaks, he says, ‘You’re gonna sit down one way or another.’
The officer who had been doing most of the talking before this point, who is seemingly the one wearing the body cam, then moves around to Parker’s left side and places his hand on his shoulder.
That’s when Parker grabs the officer’s taser.
A taser can be heard going off in the background as Parker runs toward the front of the ambulance, but it’s not clear whether the other officer fired his taser at Parker, or Parker set off the one he had stolen.
At this point, Parker has stopped near the driver-side door to the ambulance and is pointing the stolen taser at the officers.
‘Drop it, drop it now,’ an officer yells, before six gunshots are fired and Parker falls to the ground in front of the ambulance.
Parker then yells out in pain, ‘Ah, sh**!’ nine times, before an officer calls out, ‘Shots fired,’ over his radio.
After that, officers then shout for the wounded Parker to get on his stomach, moving him into that position themselves and cuffing them.
An investigation remains underway by the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office to determine whether an officer broke the law by firing on Parker.
Parker was, however, ultimately charged with six felonies, and under Florida’s ‘fleeing felon’ law, officers are permitted to shoot at someone suspected of committing a felony, even if that person is retreating.
As for whether Parker constituted a serious threat to the police, defense lawyer Brian Tannebaum told the Miami Herald that’s debatable, but Parker stealing a police weapon must be factored into that equation.
‘Those are the split-second decisions officers have to make,’ he said of the officer’s choice to open fire.
Parker is now charged with felony resisting an officer with violence, two felony counts of aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer, felony depriving an officer of his weapon/radio, felony aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and misdemeanor attaching a tag or plate not assigned to a vehicle.
He’s also charged with two infractions, including careless driving and failure to provide proof of vehicular insurance.
Parker’s next hearing in the case has been scheduled for August 23 at the Richard E. Gerstein Justice Building in Miami, with the Honorable Milton Hirsch presiding.
Parker is from Pompano Beach, which is located on the east coast of Florida, about 70 miles north of Florida City, and about 11 miles north of Fort Lauderdale.
