FORT LAUDERDALE, FLA. (WSVN) - Thirty-nine-year-old Jacara Mansfield is fighting for his life after an officer-involved shooting in Oakland Park. Now, his sister is speaking to 7News about what could have led up to the incident.
Nikki Green said she stopped everything and rushed to the hospital after knowing her brother was hospitalized.
“Now he’s unable to speak, he’s unable to move, he’s in a coma, he’s on a ventilator,” she said. “I just wanted the community to know that he is more than just some homeless person on the streets.”
According to Green, Mansfield has been homeless for some time and has always suffered from mental illness ever since he was born.
She spoke with him just hours before the incident; however, she did not know about the situation until she turned on 7News Monday morning.
“He is medically considered a schizophrenic,” she said. “When we were watching Channel 7, my husband said, ‘I think you need to come in and look at the news; this looks like your brother.’ And when I immediately looked at the news, I dropped everything that I had.”
Several people said they saw Mansfield holding a knife on the sidewalk in the area of East Oakland Park Boulevard and Northeast Sixth Avenue.
“The blade was probably six inches,” said Andrew Wilkins, a witness. “He was stabbing at the cars going by, and he was screaming.”
“He told me, I’m going to stab you and cut you up. He said something like, Come towards me, come towards me,” said another witness. “The man was running towards the police, and they shot him.”
“He jumped at my car with a shiny object that I thought was a knife,” said Bill O’Connell, a witness.
“He saw me in the car on the phone, and he started pointing the knife at me, and I told 911, ‘I have to leave; I don’t feel safe here,’” said Wilkinson.
“Then he swung at the policeman,” said another witness.
“They showed up in force, and he didn’t stand down at all. They were trying to tell him to drop his weapon, and he didn’t do it. He wouldn’t lie down, refusing everything,” said O’Connell. “He was taunting all the cops, saying, ‘Shoot me, shoot me, shoot me.'”
According to Broward Sheriff’s Office, deputies attempted to contain Mansfield with nonlethal force with ineffective results. Seconds later, they were forced to deploy their firearms.
“Multiple less-than-lethal weapons were deployed in an attempt to subdue that individual,” said Gerdy S. Louis with the Broward Sheriff’s Office.
Crews performed life-saving procedures before he was transported to Broward Health.
Green said she still wishes it was handled differently.
“We all have done everything we can to help, and we’re saying that we need extra help to give him the support that he needs because we can’t do it by ourselves,” she said. “When I reached out to case managers, they’re like, ‘He’s an adult.’ I’m like, ‘He may be an adult, but he’s not mentally capable of taking care of himself.’ So where can a family step in? We are saying help us. We don’t want him roaming the streets; we want him safe.”
Mansfield has a prior criminal history dating back to Jan. 2015 consisting of battery on a law enforcement officer, resisting an officer with violence, aggravated assault, and felony battery.
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement and BSO’s Internal Affairs Unit are investigating this incident.
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