A Florida sheriff’s deputy mistook the sound of an acorn hitting his patrol cruiser for a gunshot and fired multiple times at the SUV where a handcuffed Black man was sitting in the backseat, officials said.
The man, who was being questioned about stealing his girlfriend’s car, was not injured during the 12 November shooting. He was taken into custody but released without being charged. The officer who initiated the shooting resigned.
The Okaloosa county sheriff’s office released the body-camera video and an internal affairs report this week, addressing the acorn for the first time.
Investigators viewing the video from deputy Jesse Hernandez’s body camera saw an acorn falling just before shots were fired, an internal affairs report by the sheriff’s office concluded. The acorn bounced off the patrol vehicle’s
