A police officer's bodycam shows a man who was tased after defying orders and threatening police at the Georgia-Florida football game, Sheriff T.K. Waters said. | Jacksonville Sheriff's Office
Published on November 4, 2024 at 7:00 pm
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A man who was tased by police at Everbank Stadium stated he was going to “kill a cop” and shouted racial slurs at the officer who was trying to arrest him, Sheriff T.K. Waters said Monday.
Waters made the statements after reviewing officers’ bodycam footage of several forceful arrests at the Georgia-Florida football game on Saturday. The sheriff said the department’s administrative reviews found no officers in violation of the agency’s policies.
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“We hold our officers accountable,” Waters said. “In this case, the cellphone camera footage that has been circulating since Saturday does not comprehensively capture the circumstances surrounding these incidents.”
The first incident the agency discussed involved the video on social media that showed two officers at Everbank Stadium walking up to a man, asking him to leave, and when the man refused to leave, a dispute occurred that involved the man getting tased and put in handcuffs.
The Sheriff’s Office said the incident began about 4:20 p.m., when the man, identified as Walter Brown, accused a stadium worker of “kidnapping his children and threatening to kill [the stadium worker.]”
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“At this point in time, the stadium worker decided that she did not want to be the victim of a battery; however, she did want JSO to respond and evict the attendee from the stadium,” the Sheriff’s Office said.
Two officers, Officer Kelly, and Officer Bowers, approached Brown upon the stadium worker’s request and asked him to leave the game. Body-camera footage shows Brown did not comply with this request and began resisting.
During his resistance, body-camera footage shows Brown shouting the N-word at Officer Kelly, who is Black, multiple times and said he was either going to “leave the game or kill a cop.”
“At this point, Walter Brown has just made statements indicating that he intends to use deadly force or great bodily harm against the officers simply because he’s being ejected from the stadium,” the Sheriff’s Office said.
Footage also shows Brown trying to reach for Kelly’s gun, which the officer communicated to Officer Bowers.
A struggle followed between the officers and Brown until the officers were able to subdue him, and the Sheriff’s Office said he was taken for treatment of his injuries once he was placed in handcuffs.
Waters added that while force was undeniably used in the incident, and can sometimes get “ugly,” it does not mean it was “unlawful or contrary to policy.”
The agency then began breaking down the second viral incident, which involved two Georgia-Florida game attendees and two separate officers.
Waters added that in total, eight people were arrested at the Georgia-Florida game and 35 people were ejected, but outside of the incidents circulating on social media, no other situations escalated to this level.
The Sheriff’s Office said the administrative review process is continuing. If any additional information comes in, the department will take it into account.
This story was produced by News4Jax, a Jacksonville Today news partner.
