Florida man, Brian Dennison, 29, and his daughter were rushing home. Dennison’s daughter was having a severe asthma attack and needed medication right away. Jacksonville Sheriff, J.C. Garcia, mistakenly thought Dennison had a gun and fired his weapon. According to Dennison, he was holding his daughter at the time.
Dennison describes the altercation with police to Francesca Amiker of News4JaX:
“Last night was very scary. I had my daughter in the car with me, coming home from the basketball court, and she was having a asthma attack at the time, and I was trying to rush her back to the house.”
Dennison was driving his daughter home when he noticed her simple asthma attack turned severe. As he tried to relate the seriousness of the situation to police, Garcia pulled the trigger. Dennison says,
“As I’m rushing back to the house, cops came behind me and they actually were trying to pull me over. I waived the cop down to tell them to just hold on and when I got out of the car, the cops still proceeded to come towards me as I had my hands up, I was explaining to him the situation with my daughter and he took a shot at me. While my daughter was in my hands and at that moment in time right then and there, I thought I was shot or she was shot.”
Reflecting on the incident and expressing concern for his daughter, Dennison said,
“You don’t want your child to ever be in no type of situation like that, she’s only 6 years old, so for her to be scared and for her father to show fearfulness and in hindsight, I’m her protector, so for me to be scared and her to be scared, it wasn’t a good sight for her.”
According to Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office (JSO), Officer J.C. Garcia saw that Dennison’s license plate was expired. Garcia flipped on his police lights, signaling to Dennison that he wanted him to pull over. Dennison didn’t stop. He continued driving until he arrived at a nearby apartment complex. When Dennison exited his car to get his daughter, Garcia thought he had a small handgun and fired his weapon at him. Garcia claims Dennison’s daughter was not in his arms at the time.
Garcia then realized there was no threat. He was made aware of the immediate medical emergency and told Dennison to go upstairs to retrieve his daughter’s inhaler.
Dennison was arrested on a charge of knowingly driving with a suspended, cancelled or revoked license. He appeared in court on Tuesday, posted bond and was released.
While Garcia hasn’t been suspended or placed on any kind of restricted duty, the case is under investigation. A response and resistance review board will investigate the matter and the case will then be referred to a panel within the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office.
Thankfully, neither Dennison or his daughter were injured or killed.
News4JaX has filed the following report,
