Florida Acorn Cop Shooting

About

Florida Acorn Cop Shooting, also known as Florida Deputy Mistakes Acorn For Gunshot, refers to a viral video that shows bodycam footage from former Florida Okaloosa County Deputy Jesse Hernandez and Sergeant Beth Roberts shooting at their own patrol vehicle after Deputy Hernandez declared "Shots fired!" and "I'm hit!" seemingly mistaking the sound of an acorn falling onto his car as the impact of a bullet. The Deputy and Sergeant were reportedly shooting at an unarmed suspect handcuffed in the back of their vehicle, although both missed their target repeatedly. Deputy Hernandez has since retired from the Sheriff's Department following an internal investigation. In February 2024, bodycam footage from the incident was released and subsequently went viral on X / Twitter and other social media platforms, typically resulting in mockery and criticism of the officers' actions.

Origin

On February 13th, 2024, the YouTube^[1] account PoliceActivity posted a video titled, "Bodycam Shows Florida Deputies Shooting at Man in Patrol Car, Handcuffed and Unarmed." The 17-minute-long video showed bodycam footage of a police officer yelling "Shots Fired!" before rolling on the ground and shooting at his police patrol car. The video gathered over 480,000 views in a day (seen below).

The post also linked to a report showing the findings of an administrative investigation conducted by the Okaloosa County Sheriff's Department.^[2] According to the report, former Deputy Jesse Hernandez heard a sound he mistook for a gunshot, prompting him to alert Seargent Beth Roberts. The two then began to shoot at the handcuffed suspect in their patrol vehicle, presumably believing they were the origin of the sound.

According to the investigation, former Deputy Hernandez had mistaken the sound of an acorn falling on his car for a gunshot. Deputy Hernandez retired amidst the investigation in December 2023.

Spread

On February 13th, 2024, footage from the shooting was posted to the subreddits /r/PublicFreakout^[8] and /r/ProtectAndServe,^[9] where it gathered over 1,400 and 350 upvotes, respectively, in one day.

Also on February 13th, X^[3] user @githii posted a video of a police officer shooting at a police patrol car alongside a caption that read, "The deputy misinterpreted the sound of an acorn striking the patrol vehicle as a gunshot." The post gathered over 67,000 likes in one day (shown below).

The deputy misinterpreted the sound of an acorn striking the patrol vehicle as a gunshot. pic.twitter.com/f8Zn7u1d4P

— Githii (@githii) February 13, 2024

Later on February 13th, 2024, X^[4] user @FordFischer showed a different angle of the bodycam footage, saying, "Sgt Beth Roberts responded quickly to Deputy Hernandez erroneously calling 'shots fired' in response to an acorn dropping from a tree. 'Where? Right there?' Roberts asked before also firing at the handcuffed, unarmed man in their car. Luckily, both cops missed every shot." The post accumulated over 2,800 likes in one day (seen below).

Sgt Beth Roberts responded quickly to Deputy Hernandez erroneously calling "shots fired" in response to an acorn dropping from a tree.

"Where? Right there?" Roberts asked before also firing at the handcuffed, unarmed man in their car.

Luckily, both cops missed every shot. pic.twitter.com/S0WyadTakX

— Ford Fischer (@FordFischer) February 13, 2024

@FordFischer also posted a section that same day from the County Sherrif's investigation, which states that "Hernandez's use of deadly force was 'not objectively reasonable' but Roberts' was."

Various X users reacted to the footage on February 13th, 2024, as it spread, with X user @brndxix^[5] writing, "mistakes acorn for a gun shot / trips over himself / hits nothing but his own car / says hes hit when no one else is shooting / holy fuck they truly just give a gun and a badge to anybody." The post gathered over 82,000 likes in a day (seen below, left).

That same day, X^[6] user @Ugarles wrote, "beyond the morbid joke of the cop freaking out over an acorn, his reaction (which his partner followed) was to empty his gun into the patrol car where they had just placed a handcuffed suspect despite no real reason to believe that was the source of the 'bullet.'" The post gathered over 40,000 likes in a day (seen below, right).

Also on February 13th, X^[7] user @HeyImPostinHere uploaded an image of an acorn, writing, "This new form of fentanyl is devastating our communities," in reference to memes ad jokes about cops handling fentanyl. The post gathered over 1,000 likes in a day (seen below).

Search Interest

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External References