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Brian Alexander Gillis

Age : 30

Gender : Male

Race : Black

Date : 08/13/2025

Location : Buckman Street and East 25th Street

City : Jacksonville

County : Duval

State : Florida

Agency : Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office

Officer(s) :C. Bumgarner

Cause of Death : Gunshot

Event : Killed by police during mental health crisis

OPEN RECORDS SUMMARY :

On 08/13/2025, at approximately 7:00 a.m., Brian Gillis’s mother called the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office and requested help for her son, who was experiencing a mental health crisis. She told dispatchers that Gillis had damaged a neighbor’s property and had set a small fire on the exterior of the neighbor’s home in the 1500 block of East 16th Street. Gillis’s mother specifically described him as mentally ill and sought to have him detained for a mental health evaluation. JSO later said Gillis had previously been involuntarily committed for mental health evaluation multiple times and had no criminal history. Surveillance footage and statements recorded on police body cameras provided corroborating evidence that Gillis had damaged the neighboring property and started the small fire.
A JSO officer accompanied by a mental health clinician responded and spoke with Gillis’s family and neighbors, but Gillis had already left the area. Officers established a perimeter and searched for him for approximately 90 minutes. Police were preparing to end the search when K-9 Officer Caleb Michael Bumgarner located Gillis on East 25th Street near Buckman Street at approximately 9:19 a.m.
Body-camera footage subsequently released by JSO shows Bumgarner calling Gillis by name and warning him that he would be bitten by the police dog if he did not stop. Gillis continued moving away while carrying a large knife. Bumgarner drove after Gillis, caught up with him and exited his patrol vehicle carrying a Taser. The footage shows Gillis standing on the sidewalk with the knife while Bumgarner remained in the street. Gillis extended the knife in Bumgarner’s direction and twice told the officer to back up. JSO characterized this movement as Gillis threatening Bumgarner with the knife.
Bumgarner dropped his Taser, drew his handgun and ordered Gillis to drop the knife. Body-camera footage shows that Gillis then turned and was running away from Bumgarner along the sidewalk when Bumgarner opened fire. Bumgarner fired six rounds approximately one second after ordering Gillis to drop the knife, striking him and causing him to collapse on the sidewalk. The knife remained in Gillis’s hand after he fell. Other officers arrived, removed the knife and provided emergency medical treatment until paramedics took over. Gillis died at the scene.
JSO initially described the shooting as occurring after Gillis allegedly threatened Bumgarner with the knife. The subsequently released body-camera footage provided additional context to that account: Gillis can be seen extending the knife and telling Bumgarner to back up before the shooting, but he had turned and was running away from the officer when Bumgarner fired the fatal volley.
Bumgarner had served with JSO for approximately 11 years and worked as a K-9 officer. JSO said the killing of Gillis was his first police shooting. The State Attorney’s Office opened an independent review of the shooting, followed by JSO’s internal administrative review and its Response to Resistance review process.
Bumgarner had previously been named as a defendant in a federal civil-rights lawsuit arising from a 2021 JSO K-9 arrest. Maurice Whigham sued Bumgarner and other JSO personnel, alleging excessive force and constitutional violations after officers deployed a police dog against him during an arrest. Video reviewed by local media showed Whigham sitting on the edge of a bed with his empty hands raised as officers pointed firearms toward him and the K-9 was released into the room. The dog subsequently bit Whigham’s foot, which the lawsuit alleged was fractured and later became infected while he was incarcerated. The robbery charges associated with that arrest were later cleared. Whigham filed the federal civil-rights action in the Middle District of Florida in January 2023, naming Caleb M. Bumgarner, two other officers and then-Sheriff Mike Williams as defendants.
Following release of the Gillis body-camera footage, the Jacksonville Community Action Committee publicly demanded that Bumgarner be fired and prosecuted and renewed its call for civilian oversight of JSO. The organization challenged the use of deadly force against Gillis during a documented mental health crisis, particularly because the video showed Gillis moving away when Bumgarner fired.

SOURCE LINKS :

https://www.news4jax.com/news/local/2025/08/13/jso-portion-of-buckman-st-from-east-24th-st-to-east-27th-st-blocked-off-due-to-officer-involved-shooting/
https://www.jaxsheriff.org/News/20250813-Officer-Involved-Shooting.aspx