Jacksonville Bodycam: Traffic Stop, Handgun, One Shot (video)

On December 13, 2024, officers in Jacksonville stopped a driver they said had run a red light. Within minutes, the driver had told them he was carrying a handgun, officers had moved to remove it, and a shot went off that struck him in the leg. Body-camera footage of the stop captures an exchange that stays calm for far longer than the ending suggests.

Bodycam: Jacksonville Traffic Stop Ends With a Single Shot

A Stop Over a Red Light

The encounter began with a disagreement about a traffic signal. An officer said the driver had run a red light; the driver said the light was yellow when he went through and only turned red after he crossed. He did not push the point further, and he handed over his information without argument.

The officer asked for what he described as the usual items — a valid driver's license and proof of insurance. For those first minutes, nothing in the recorded exchange suggested the stop would end any other way than with a citation and a drive home.

An Admission About a Handgun

Then came the question officers often ask to surface danger early: whether there was anything in the car they should know about. The driver answered immediately and directly. He told the officer he had a handgun with him.

He added that he did not have a concealed carry permit, though he said he was not a convicted felon. The officer asked where the weapon was, and the driver indicated it was on him. The admission reshaped the stop, and the officer's next instruction followed from it.

A Plan to Remove the Pistol

Because a weapon was now part of the picture, the officer decided the driver should step out of the vehicle so the pistol could be temporarily removed while his license and insurance were checked. Before opening the door, he relayed his assessment to another officer.

He's got a pistol on, so we're going to take him out from that side, remove the pistol and we'll go from there.

He also described the driver as "very compliant." On the recording, the plan sounds routine: take the gun, verify the information, and send him on his way if everything checked out.

The driver kept cooperating. He confirmed where the weapon was and answered the follow-up questions; at one point the officer told him it was fine as long as he stayed cool. The footage then shows officers gathered at the open door of a light-colored car on a roadside, with body-camera metadata stamped in the corner. The timestamps read December 13, 2024, shortly after 5 p.m.

The Moment It Changed

While officers were dealing with the handgun, a shot went off and struck the driver in the leg. The material shows nothing that explains how the weapon discharged, and the audio records no warning or struggle beforehand.

What follows is an officer asking the driver whether he is okay. The clip carries its own caption describing an officer shooting the man in the leg while removing his gun, and labels itself as a first part. That framing emphasizes the shooting itself, while the recorded words describe the shot as something that simply happened.

What Remains Open

The footage covers the stop and its immediate aftermath and stops there. How a declared handgun went off during a removal that both the officer and the driver appeared to be handling without friction is not answered anywhere in it.

No official conclusion appears in the available material. No charge, finding or determination is attached to anyone in it, and no department statement is included — leaving some details unverified, including what happened to the driver after the recording ends.

What would you want investigators to explain first when a declared weapon discharges during a traffic stop?

This story was edited from a publicly posted video; some details may not be independently verified.