Death by Cop 2021-2025
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Geraldine Francis
Age : 79
Gender : Female
Race : Black
Date : 08/11/2024
Location : Northwest Sixth Street and Northwest 27th Avenue
City : Fort Lauderdale
County : Broward
State : Florida
Agency : Broward County Sheriff’s Office
Officer(s) :Not Disclosed
Cause of Death : Vehicle
Event : Bystander killed by police chase crash
OPEN RECORDS SUMMARY :
On 08/11/2024, shortly before 4:00 p.m., two marked Broward Sheriff’s Office vehicles followed a rented Tesla Model 3 driven by a teenager through unincorporated Broward County near Fort Lauderdale. Surveillance video and the subsequent arrest affidavit showed the Tesla traveling as fast as 85 mph on roads with a 35-mph speed limit while the BSO vehicles followed behind it. Witnesses described the encounter as a high-speed police chase and reported that the deputies were traveling without emergency lights or sirens. The publicly released arrest records did not explain what initially caused deputies to begin following the vehicle being pursued.
The vehicle continued west on Northwest Sixth Street at high speed and entered the intersection at Northwest 27th Avenue against a red light. The Tesla struck the driver’s side of a Dodge Durango driven south by 55-year-old Lisa Marie Jackson. Jackson’s 79-year-old mother, Geraldine Rosetta Francis, and Jackson’s 18-year-old daughter, Kumani Jackson, were passengers in the Durango. The collision forced the Durango airborne and redirected it into a Chevrolet Trax that had stopped at the intersection. The Trax overturned, while the Tesla and Durango crashed through a chain-link fence surrounding a cemetery.
Lisa Jackson and Geraldine Francis were transported to Broward Health Medical Center, where both died from their injuries. Kumani Jackson suffered critical injuries and remained in Florida for months receiving extensive medical treatment. The family had traveled from Bermuda because Kumani was preparing to begin university in Florida.
The teenager being pursued suffered severe injuries, including the loss of a leg. He was arrested at the hospital and charged with two counts of vehicular homicide, reckless driving causing serious bodily injury, three counts of aggravated fleeing and eluding, and additional reckless-driving offenses involving injuries and property damage.
The inclusion of three aggravated fleeing and eluding charges confirmed that law enforcement treated the Tesla’s movement before the crash as an effort to evade deputies. BSO placed two deputies on restricted administrative assignment and opened an Internal Affairs investigation into whether the deputies had initiated or continued an unauthorized pursuit. The publicly released records did not identify the two deputies.
