NEAR FORT LAUDERDALE, FLA. (WSVN) – Authorities have released 911 phone calls from a family member of a man who was killed in a deputy-involved shooting in unicorporated Central Broward County
The 911 caller reported the tense moments a man started waving a gun before Broward Sheriff’s Office deputies responded to the disturbance with a firearm along the 2500 block of Northwest Ninth Court, just south of Sunrise Boulevard and near Interstate 95, Sept. 21.
“We have someone over here with a firearm,” said a relative.
“I’ll let him know he’s walking around there, and you said he’s tripping on drugs, is that correct?” said a dispatcher.
“Yes, yes, yes,” said a relative.
Upon arrival, deputies surrounded the home with their weapons drawn demanding the man, Jarrell Johnson, who authorities said barricaded himself inside the home with his family, to come outside and surrender.
Cellphone video showed Johnson exiting the home, appearing to point a gun at himself as deputies ordered him to drop the weapon.
“The initial call was for a disturbance, possibly with an adult male, who was armed with a firearm, kind of walking around, waving it,” said BSO spokesperson Miranda Grossman.
Family members told deputies Johnson was going through a crisis, hallucinating while on drugs and that he needed help.
“Don’t shoot him. Whatever you do, don’t shoot,” the man told dispatchers.
Johnson’s family members made the same pleas to deputies as the tense standoff took place.
“Don’t shoot him, don’t shoot him,” a woman begged.
Johnson then went back inside his home, where his family reportedly was, when a deputy in tactical gear with his gun drawn approached the open front door.
Several gunshots can be heard moments later.
“The sheriff’s department made it as if they had no choice but to shoot. That’s not true,” said Shakira McFadden, the victim’s cousin.
Investigators said Johnson fired his gun first, forcing their deputy to shoot. Johnson did not survive.
His family believes it didn’t have to end that way.
“They just took a father, they took a husband, they took our family. They need another tactic for people with mental illness,” said McFadden.
As is the case with all deputy-involved shootings, the Florida Department of law Enforcement is investigating.
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