JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A former 911 dispatcher is accused of badly injuring a bicyclist with his car and then driving away, said the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office during a Wednesday news conference.
Undersheriff Pat Ivey says Kenneth G. Clifton, a 20-year veteran, was charged with fleeing the scene of an accident with bodily injury after a crash in the 5400 block of Verna Boulevard on Nov. 30.
Ivey said the crash involved a bicyclist, who still remains in serious condition.
An arrest report says the crash happened around 5:10 p.m. A person in the area gave First Coast News surveillance footage of the alleged incident. In the video, you can see a man riding a bicycle down the roadway when a car appears to hit him.
The man can then be seen falling into what appears to be a pile of trash.
When asked whether alcohol played a role in this crash, Ivey said it's unclear at this time due to the length of time that has transpired since the incident.
Ivey says traffic homicide detectives were able to use a piece of mirror that was found at the scene of the crash to issue a BOLO (be on the lookout) for a vehicle that matched the personal vehicle of Clifton, a gray Ford with its passenger mirror broken off, according to the report.
A detective took a piece of the mirror to a local Ford dealership and learned the plastic piece was the outer cover for a passenger-side mirror of a 2019 to 2022 Ford Ranger, the report says.
Sixty-year-old Clifton later approached traffic homicide detectives and told them that his vehicle matched the description and that he believed he had hit a pothole, Ivey said.
The officer was interviewed Wednesday morning by detectives, who reportedly determined that the damage his vehicle sustained was not consistent with hitting a pothole and arrested him.
The victim told detectives he was riding his bicycle to a nearby post office in the grass to stay out of traffic and was hit from behind by a vehicle that knocked him off of his bike and onto the ground, according to the arrest report. The victim never saw the vehicle that hit him, but was told it was a truck. The victim was wearing a helmet and a backpack with several items inside, which he told police helped absorb some of the impact, the arrest report says.
Clifton has resigned from the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office, Ivey says.
He was booked into the JSO Pretrial Detention Facility at 9:40 a.m. Wednesday.
This is the 10th JSO employee arrest of 2021.
First Coast News is working to learn more.