JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The State Attorney's Office has found 14 officer-involved shootings were "justified" under Florida law. Eight of those 14 cases were fatal, including the death of 17-year-old Kwame Jones, killed during a traffic stop in January.
The state notified the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office of all 14 reviews on a single day, Aug. 20, but a spokesperson for the office notes that the decisions were reached over a period of months.
"To clarify, our notification to the Sheriff’s Office was not that these cases were 'closed,' but that our officer-involved critical incident team had convened on these cases and rendered an opinion as to whether the shooting was criminal, or not," SAO spokesperson David Chapman said in a written statement. "We notified JSO of these decisions so that they can begin their internal administrative processes. Our officer-involved critical incident panel has been meeting regularly throughout 2020 to finalize our decisions in pending investigations. While we relayed many of these decisions on the same date, the decisions themselves were made over the course of multiple meetings. We are working to finalize the reports on these matters and will post them to our website as we issue them."
Jones was shot on Jan. 5 at the intersection of Moncrief Road and 45th Street. A makeshift memorial now rests at the scene.
Investigators say "some sort of exchange occurred between the officer and Jones" before the officer fired multiple shots."
The final reports in the cases are not yet available.