Police work the scene where officers shot a man Monday, Aug. 25, 2025, on Mayport Road near Dutton Island Road West. | News4Jax
Published on August 26, 2025 at 11:22 am
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A man is dead after a standoff with police Monday night in Atlantic Beach, the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office says.
The 90-minute incident started with a confrontation with people at a Dutton Island boat ramp. It ended after the 37-year-old man holed up in his car near a gas station on Mayport Road and reached for a gun case. Nine officers fired into his car, police said.
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The man, so far unidentified, would not leave his car despite officers’ efforts to get him out, Chief Alan Parker said at a news conference near the shooting scene.
“The door is cracked open so they can see him pretty well and they keep talking to him, like I said, for an hour and a half,” Chief Alan Parker said. “Toward the end, they see him — he picks up a rifle case, and he either opened it, or already opened it or whatever and is reaching into it, and officers then engaged him. We had nine shooting officers that engaged him at that point.”
The incident began about 6 p.m. at the Dutton Island Preserve boat ramp, when a Georgia couple saw the man firing a rifle into the water and tried to talk to him.
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The man pointed his rifle at the husband, who then walked away. He later told detectives he heard the man saying he knew the couple had called police, “and the only way they’re getting me out of here is dead,” police said.
The husband said the two began talking again. The man with the rifle asked for a drink. When he got it, he pointed his rifle at the husband again, and they scuffled.
The husband “grabs the gun. They fight over the gun and go down to the ground,” Parker said. “The victim ends up on top of the suspect and is holding the gun, and he pointed it — he kind of emptied the magazine to get the rest of the rounds out.”
The husband tossed the rifle away, then rejoined his wife and drove away. But the man tried to ram them, Parker said. The vehicles sideswiped each other, then the gunman hit another vehicle on Mayport Road before hitting a pole.
Officers repeatedly ordered the man to get out, but he appeared to barricade himself inside before reaching for the rifle case. He was shot just after 7:30 p.m., Parker said.
The State Attorney’s Office is investigating the shooting, then the Sheriff’s Office will conduct its own internal review. Parker said the man appeared to have had only a criminal mischief charge and some traffic tickets on his record.
This is the 14th shooting involving an officer this year, versus eight for all of last year, according to police.
