OKALOOSA COUNTY, Fla. – Florida deputies unleashed several rounds on a suspect already in a patrol car, after a deputy mistook a fallen acorn for a gunshot and it has since cost him his job.
Newly released body camera video showed the moments that triggered a wild chain of events in Okaloosa County last November.
Okaloosa County Sheriff’s deputies responded to a call from a young woman who claimed her boyfriend stole her car and was sending her threatening messages.
“He puts his hands on me. It gets very violent. There he is walking up,” said the woman.
As deputies are filing the report, the suspect in question walks up to the scene. The woman tells them he has a weapon and a silencer but is not sure if he was armed at the moment.
Authorities pat him down, put him in handcuffs and then place him in the back of Deputy Jesse Hernandez’s cruiser.
Hernandez opened fire on his own patrol car, after he said he believed he heard gunshots.
His partner seemed confused, but also fires her weapon and watched as Hernandez fell to the ground in body camera video.
According to reports, all the shots missed the suspect inside the cruiser.
Hernandez had been with the department for less than two years and has since resigned.
Investigators determined his actions were unreasonable, but decided his actions did not warrant criminal charges.