JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A patrol officer with the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office was arrested on charges of armed kidnapping, stalking and death threats, the agency announced Thursday.
Sheriff T.K. Waters said Officer Brian Housend was arrested by the Nassau County Sheriff's Office Thursday. He is charged with three felonies, listed below.
- Armed kidnapping with a firearm
- Written threats to kill
- Aggravated stalking
He called the collection of charges "very disturbing." Waters said Housend was originally hired by JSO on Oct. 31, 2005. He had left and worked with other agencies since then and was hired back on two separate occasions. The sheriff said Housend even left JSO at one point to obtain his law degree.
Over the course of his employment with JSO, Sheriff Waters said "there's been a few situations where he dealt with internal affairs," but it "didn't rise to the level of termination."
Thursday's charges stem from a relationship Housend had with a female victim, according to an arrest warrant from the Nassau County Sheriff's Office.
According to the report, a Nassau County deputy responded to a call from the victim on Tuesday after a dispute with Housend. The victim told the deputy she saw a green laser, which she believed to be the type equipped to a firearm, shining into a window in her home. Based on a series of ongoing threats she said she's received from Housend, she believed it to be him.
The victim also showed the deputy threatening emails and text messages she had received from Housend Tuesday and months leading up to that day, the report shows.
Within one of the email exchanges, Housend and the victim discussed an incident where Housend is accused of taking a rifle out of a gun safe in February when the victim accused him of hurting her.
According to the police report, Housend did not deny this happened, but instead blamed the victim for calling internal affairs.
The victim told the Nassau officer the incident happened Feb. 28 when Housend allegedly abused her when trying to take her cellphone from her. She told police that following the struggle, Housend grabbed a rifle out of the gun save, an act she considered threatening.
The report shows text messages were also exchanged between the two in May and June where the victim pleaded with Housend to stop sending her "harassing texts," asking him to only contact her via email. That sentiment was emphasized several times by the victim over the next couple months, the report states. However, the report states Housend continued reaching out to her via text, call and email in a "threatening and harassing manner."
The victim told the Nassau County deputy Housend came to her house on July 11 in his marked JSO patrol car, wearing his JSO uniform with his JSO-issued weapon. Once there, the report states he began beating on the back door. The victim "reluctantly" let Housend into her home where they engaged in a "civil conversation" that shifted into a "threatening conversation" where Housend allegedly told the victim he'd kill her "then and there" if she didn't get back together with him.
The report goes on to list other instances of threats and harassing text messages sent to the victim.
Housend has been suspended without pay by JSO, but will ultimately be fired, Waters said.
This was the 13th arrest by JSO employee in 2024.