Police fired at their car because of an acorn that fell on the roof

In the United States, a police officer opened fire on a patrol car with a detainee. When a law enforcement officer passed by the car, he heard a suspicious sound similar to a gunshot. In fact, an acorn fell on the roof of the vehicle.

Deputy Jesse Hernandez's epic shootout with an acorn happened back in November of last year. On November 12, Hernandez and his partner, Sergeant Beth Roberts, arrested local resident Marquis Jackson on charges of car theft and threats to kill. The law enforcement officer was just heading to the official car, where Jackson was waiting in the back seat, when he heard a suspicious sound that sounded like a gunshot.

Hernandez decided that he had been shot with a pistol with a silencer - Jackson, threatening his girlfriend, had just sent her a photo of the same one. He tried to hide from the “fire” and radioed Roberts to the rescue, after which the law enforcement officers opened fire on their own car, and even with the detainee in handcuffs inside. In the video, Hernandez can be heard shouting into the radio that he was “shot in the chest.”

The detainee was not injured, but now claims to have suffered “psychological trauma for life.”

“All I could do was bend over and not move so as not to get shot. I was scared to death and knew that I could only rely on the Lord God! I prayed while the fragments fell on me, and the bullets continued to whistle above me,” Marquis Jackson later described this incident on the social network.

As reported by Vice, Jesse Hernandez learned that the strange sound was actually made by an acorn falling on the car only during an internal investigation, when he was shown footage from surveillance cameras. He explained his actions by his army background - the deputy sheriff previously served as an officer in the special forces and was twice deployed to Afghanistan, although he did not have the opportunity to participate in combat operations.

However, the county police department considered Hernandez's use of weapons to be unjustified, and he was forced to resign. The authorities made no claims against Sergeant Roberts.

“We have a responsibility to protect our officers so they can return home safely to their families, just as law enforcement has a responsibility to protect the life of a citizen who is under investigation,” the county sheriff's office said in a statement.