Sheriff’s deputies in Jacksonville, Florida opened fire on and killed a suspect who allegedly attempted to stab a Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office K9 at the end of an hours-long standoff with the deputies. That incident occurred on April 12th and footage of it was just released.
The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Department released the video in a “critical incident briefing” that was just posted to Facebook. The briefing shows both footage of the event and a deputy explaining what happened during the incident.
Captioning the video, the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office said, “The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office, along with the State Attorney’s Office, continue the investigation into the officer involved shooting that occurred on Wednesday, April 12, 2023, in the 12000 block of Copper Springs Road.”
Continuing, the statement added, “Aligning with Sheriff Waters’ continuing commitment to openness and transparency, the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office is releasing the attached Critical Incident Briefing.” Finally, they said, “The video will disclose currently available information related to the shooting and events that led up to it. The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office does not draw any conclusions regarding whether the officers’ actions were appropriate with respect to the law or JSO policy until all of the facts are known, and the investigation has been completed.”
Watch it here:
As you can hear about and watch in the above video, the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Deputies were called to a home in Jacksonville, being told that a man named Matvey Klimenko was holding an ex-girlfriend hostage at knife-point. There were several outstanding warrants for Klimenko and he had a history of domestic violence incidents. Further, both his mother and sister had a restraining order against him.
Once law enforcement authorities arrived at the home, they negotiated and reasoned with him for multiple hours, attempting to get him to surrender. They succeeded in getting him to release the hostage, who they guided out of the house through a window.
With the hostage safe, they started looking for Klimenko himself. To do so, they called in a K-9 unit, with which they eventually spotted him in the front yard of a nearby home.
They then released the K-9, sending it to pursue catch Klimenko before he could get away. Klimenko then pulled a knife on the dog and closed in on it while the deputies screamed for him to drop the knife and not harm the K-9.
Klimenko did not heed their commands and prepared to bring the knife down on the K-9, at which point several shots were fired, striking Klimenko and bringing him down before he could harm the K-9. Klimenko was later pronounced dead.
The sheriff’s office also announced that the incident is now being investigated to determine if the shooting of Klimenko was justified and in compliance with departmental procedure. Given that he was clearly preparing to stab a K-9 officer, it would appear that it was a clean shooting, justified by the necessity of saving the K-9’s life from being snuffed out by a madman with a knife.
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video
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