The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office (JSO) has finally released body camera footage from the August 11 shooting that left 22-year-old Asia Bennett dead, and now a family is demanding even more answers.
Bennett was killed after JSO officers responded to a domestic call around 10:45 p.m. at a home on Westdale Drive in Arlington. According to the department, a man told the first officer on scene that he’d been arguing with his girlfriend, Bennett, who was still inside armed with a knife. JSO says Bennett came outside holding a large kitchen knife, refused to drop it, and moved toward the officer, identified as 26-year-old Erin Gaitten , who then fired. The agency claims Bennett fell, got back up, and moved toward the officer again, prompting a second shot. Bennett died at the hospital.
But almost as soon as that story hit the public, Bennett’s family and their attorney, civil rights powerhouse Ben Crump, said it didn’t add up. Crump said witnesses on the scene told a different story, one where Bennett was heard screaming for help, and where the two gunshots came in such quick succession that there wasn’t enough time for her to fall, get back up, and “come at” the officer a second time. “How is it that the witnesses could tell she was the victim, but yet the officer was the only one who made her the threat?”
Chance Lynch, the lead attorney on the case, put it even simpler standing at the press conference: “Asia Bennett should be alive right now, and we stand with this family, demanding transparency and accountability, and we refuse to let Asia’s story be told by the agency that ended it.”
JSO confirmed this was the department’s 13th officer-involved shooting of the year. Interestingly enough, just hours after Bennett was killed, JSO brought up an April arrest involving her and her boyfriend. But court records show the State Attorney’s Special Victims Unit reviewed that case and declined to prosecute Bennett, because she was the one determined to be the victim.
Meanwhile, Bennett’s boyfriend, Joshua Smith, who was present the night of the shooting, was actually convicted of battering Bennett the year before. Crump didn’t hold back on that point: “The State Attorney’s own Special Victims Unit read that evidence and refused to prosecute Asia.”
Bennett’s family painted a picture of a young woman who was nowhere near a threat to anyone. Her mother, Crissy Duncan, told local reporters her daughter weighed just 110 pounds and was the victim of ongoing domestic violence — not someone the police needed protection from. “She is so tiny… she’s the sweetest. You would never hear nothing from Asia,” Duncan said.
JSO has maintained that the shooting is under review, both by the State Attorney’s Office and through the department’s own use-of-force process, and pointed to its policy of releasing body camera footage within 21 days of a critical incident “absent an investigative prohibition.”
Now that the video is out, the real work starts… Socialites, what are your thoughts on this case? Sound off in the comment box below!