Police investigate an officer-involved shooting on Tuesday, July 16, 2025, on Brahma Bull Circle on the Jacksonville's Northside. | News4Jax
Published on July 16, 2025 at 10:52 am
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Police shot a man to death Tuesday after what the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office called a bizarre encounter just after 11 p.m. on the city’s Northside.
The shooting was the 11th involving a police officer so far this year, police said.
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Officers were called to a home on Brahma Bull Circle after a request for help from the fire department. They arrived to hear a man and a woman screaming inside.
After forcing their way into a bedroom, officers found Amir Bradshear, 26, ripping out a pregnant woman’s hair and chewing it as she shielded a child, police say. They were on an overturned and broken bed.
Officers told the man to release the woman, but he continued to attack her until the officers used Tasers. The woman managed to escape with the child, but the man fought officers as they tried to get him out of the bedroom, Chief Alan Parker said.
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Officers shot the man with Tasers multiple times, but he continued to attack them, Parker said.
Two officers and a sergeant then shot the man, police said. He died at a hospital.
This was the first shooting for the two officers involved and the second for the sergeant, Parker said.
Sheriff T.K. Waters said the officers tried to talk the man out of the room for over a half hour before the shooting.
“It’s difficult to figure out what’s going on,” Waters said at the scene. “You are there trying to bring the situation to a close safely, but you walk in and see a lady on the ground — he’s literally pulling her hair and not letting her go. … You are trying to figure out what’s happening. At the same time, you want it to end safely.”
This was the second officer-inolved shooting that ended in a death in the past week.
Just after 8 a.m. July 9, Officer Luis Mercado shot and killed Jamari Akins, 20, during a fight on Norfolk Boulevard in the Sherwood Forest area, police said.
Mercado stopped Akins after an armed robbery at a nearby store, and the two fought. Akins fired two shots and hit Mercado in the leg. The officer returned fire and killed Akins, police said.
