A Jacksonville sheriff's deputy shot a suspect who led police on a chase.
Published on April 23, 2024 at 3:19 pm
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An officer with the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office is charged with leaving the scene of a crash involving injury after he slammed into the back of a vehicle last weekend.
Officer John Burr, 32, was in his marked patrol vehicle traveling to a Sheriff’s Office substation to begin his shift around noon Saturday when he rear-ended a vehicle at Argyle Forest Boulevard and Loch Highlands Boulevard, an arrest report shows.
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The other driver had stopped for traffic at the intersection when she saw the marked police car approaching with the officer driving with his head down, the report says.
The woman pulled over her car and Burr continued to drive on. She then tried to follow Burr, honking her horn and trying to get his attention, but he did not stop and was driving in and out of traffic dangerously, the report says
The report said the woman complained of neck and lower back pain. Her family took her to the hospital and she was released later.
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Burr has since resigned from the Sheriff’s Office. Sheriff TK Waters said the crash was a minor incident that escalated.
“It’s very simple: just stop. We’ll come work it and take pictures. You’ll probably get discipline, no doubt about it, if it’s your fault, but termination and arrest would not be part of the situation. So it’s something minor, I believe he probably got afraid, got scared, and made a bad decision,” Waters said.
Burr bonded out of jail the day after the crash. He is charged with one count of leaving the scene of a crash involving injury, which is a third-degree felony.
This is the fourth arrest of a Sheriff’s Office employee in 2024.
