MICANOPY — The suspect who fired at a Florida Highway Patrol (FHP) trooper on Interstate 75 in Alachua County Saturday has been identified as Miami-resident Earl Jackson, 59.
The Trooper had arrived to assist a disabled vehicle when a then-unknown black male began firing at him, and then fled into the woods. While the trooper was investigating the abandoned car, he noticed a man with a gun by the fence on the wood line. After he repeatedly asked Jackson to drop the gun, the suspect fired at him three times in an undetermined direction before running into the woods. Sgt. Tracy Hisler-Pace, the Alachua County Public Relations Officer for the Florida Highway Patrol, said the trooper was unharmed during the confrontation.
The disabled vehicle was on northbound I-75 south of Gainesville in Micanopy. According to the Marion County Sheriff’s Office, who assisted the Alachua County Sheriff’s Office, the man was found dead after law enforcement officials made contact with the suspect. A confrontation occurred and the suspect was dead. While the circumstances of the man’s death was not detailed, Sheriff Sadie Darnell said gunfire was exchanged and that the man threatened and fired on officers first.
Deputies from the Alachua and Marion County sheriff’s offices assisted in the takedown.
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is investigating the death of Jackson and have said that once their investigation is complete they will turn the information over to the State Attorney’s Office. Friends and family members said Jackson was a former Florida corrections officer.
