Regardless of Whether a FLA Officer Shot the Right or Wrong Black Teen in the Back, a White DA says the Cop Acted "in Good Faith" During Their 'Which NGHR Hunt.' 14 Yr Old Hadn't Committed a Crime

NO CRIMINAL CONSEQUENCES AFTER COP SHOT INNOCENT BLACK BOY IN THE BACK. A so-called communication breakdown within the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office dispatch system led multiple officers on a frenzied, hour-long search for the wrong car in the wake of a fatal drive-by shooting last month in Northwest Jacksonville. Operating under incorrect information, a JSO officer shot a fleeing, unarmed 14-year-old boy in the back four times, leaving him in critical condition. The boy had nothing to do with the shooting.

State Attorney Melissa Nelson said this week the officer, Jacob Cahill, did not violate any laws by shooting the boy, who survived, because he was working in good faith on outdated information. Nelson is white. She also recently declined to file charges against the Florida cops who stopped a Black man for driving without headlights on during the daytime and beat him causing brain injury.

A black Kia Optima that the boy and his friends stole that evening from a DoorDash driver for a joy ride was initially suspected of being involved in a nearby shooting, but officers working the shooting scene quickly realized those crimes were not related.

If dispatchers had relayed to the task force that the black Kia was not linked to the drive-by, Nelson said there would not have been a full-fledged pursuit of the four teens, which damaged the Kia and one JSO cruiser, which crashed into a nearby building.

Cahill, however, who was a member of that task force, didn’t know the Kia was no longer the suspect vehicle in the drive-by shooting, so when the 14-year-old boy fled from the scene, he believed he was chasing a potential shooter, Nelson said.

Nelson characterized the circumstances as a “perfect storm” and an “unusual and unfortunate alignment of circumstances,” but the foul-up also revealed a systemic and critical failure in the way JSO dispatchers communicate with officers on the street. 

Officer Jacob T. Cahill, 27, who has been with JSO for three years, said he chased one of the teens who ran, thinking he was the driver of the crashed Kia and that he was armed. Nelson said Cahill believed that because of the prior reports, the car chase and crash, the teen’s arm position, and poor visibility, which kept him from seeing what was in the teen’s left hand.

Cahill shouted a command and almost immediately fired four shots, hitting the teen in the back.

It turned out the teen was unarmed, and his movement toward his waistband was likely just grabbing his pants.

The teen was rushed into surgery in critical condition. Nelson declined to release his name at the request of his family. She said he has been released from the hospital.

Nelson said that because of the anticipated public interest, her office sped up the review that normally takes anywhere from six to 12 months and finished it in about 30 days.

She said her team examined bodycams, surveillance, radio logs and witness statements, and consulted use of force experts before concluding that Cahill’s use of potentially deadly force was lawful and not criminal under the legal standard that looks at what a reasonable officer could have believed at the time.

“We, in reviewing his actions, must assess his actions from the perspective of a reasonable officer on the scene, not with the benefit of hindsight, and must consider all facts known to and reasonably believed by him at the moment force is deployed,” Nelson explained. “The question is not what we know now to be true today, but what a reasonable officer could have believed in that moment based on the information available to him.” [MORE]

Apparently, the racist suspect prosecutor claims that the officer would have been justified in using deadly force against any person who fled from the police at that time, regardless of whether the individual had committed a crime or not.

Even if the teen was involved in a crime, he could not have reasonably posed a threat to the white cop as he fled - running away from the cop as fast as he could, who then shot him in the back.

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Jacksonville attorney Matt Kachergus, who is representing the family of the 14-year-old boy, who The Tributary is not naming, said in a written statement that the family is disappointed that their child was shot multiple times while Cahill is likely to not be held accountable for the use of deadly force. 

 “Although the State Attorney has determined there will be no accountability for this officer, the family will seek to hold him accountable in our system of justice,” Kachergus said.