JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - A police officer who hit and killed a man crossing the street earlier this week appears to be the same officer involved in a recent spitting incident at a local hospital.
That incident and a scuffle that followed was captured on cell phone video shot just outside UF Health in Jacksonville this April. The Jacksonville Sheriff's Office refuses to confirm the connection.
In the video, you can see the officer appears to spit on a man who was cursing at him. That man is later taken down and arrested.
The police report names the officer in that incident as Tim James. In the report, he’s listed as the victim.
The arrested man in the video was charged with battery on a law enforcement officer. The incident is still under investigation.
His squad car can also be seen in the video bearing the number 183.
In a video from the crash scene Wednesday night when a pedestrian was killed, you can see squad car number is also 183. And the name? T.L. James.
The crash report says it was officer Timothy Lee James behind the wheel. He says he was not speeding the time and was headed to a robbery call.
We reached out to police to confirm that Timothy Lee James is the same Tim James as the officer in the spitting incident but public information officer Melissa Bujeda told us it would violate the law to identify any officer under investigation.
We pulled the officer’s discipline history after the spitting incident and learned that Officer Timothy L James has a history of complaints, including two vehicle crashes which led to counseling and training.
First Coast News has been asking JSO about the connection between these two incidents for two days now. We asked the agency to let us know if the officers involved in the two incidents were not the same person. We haven't received an answer at the time of this writing.