Dwight Jackson was outside his Chattahoochee, Florida home putting up Halloween decorations on Oct. 25 when he suddenly had a seizure and collapsed to the ground. What followed, according to Jackson, was a terrifying encounter with a police sergeant who tased him seven times — an episode that has since cost that officer his job.
Jackson's brother, Caleb Johns, called for emergency help, and family members told WCTV the seizure lasted about 10 minutes before EMS arrived and began treating him. Roughly 45 minutes after Jackson started receiving aid, Johns said, a Chattahoochee Police officer — identified as Sgt. Price — arrived and jumped on top of him with a Taser already drawn. Johns said Price pushed bystanders aside, got on top of Jackson, and began deploying the weapon.
Jackson disputes the department's characterization of him as combative. “I wasn't combative; I was experiencing a seizure,” he told the station, describing the ordeal as more frightening than his time in the war because “it's unexpected; I'm defenseless.” Jackson, who is Black, said he had experienced seizures before and was not resisting arrest when the Taser was deployed.
Seven Taser Cycles and a Fired Sergeant
Sergeant Price deployed his Taser seven times before taking Jackson into custody, according to firelawblog.com. Johns recorded part of the encounter on his cellphone, and the footage later went viral after it was posted to Facebook. Police Chief Michael Miller said he was called to assist and said EMS was having trouble restraining what he described as a “combative individual,” alleging that Jackson resisted and pulled on the officer's body armor — an account Jackson rejects.
Chattahoochee Police released a statement three days after the incident, following a wave of public complaints, confirming that Price had been fired. Miller said the sergeant's conduct and demeanor did not meet department standards. A supervisory review that followed the initial response turned up a second video showing Price in a verbal altercation with an EMS employee, as well as another use-of-force incident that occurred while Jackson was being brought into the police department. The review also found that Price wore a body camera but failed to activate it during the initial encounter and use of force, the same report notes.
Conflicting Accounts of When the Seizure Happened
Accounts of the incident diverge on a key point. WCTV reported that Jackson's seizure and collapse happened before the officer arrived and before any Taser use began. But fox49.tv reported that police said the individual was transported to the Chattahoochee Police Department and suffered a seizure there, after which he was taken to a hospital for evaluation. The two outlets' timelines have not been reconciled publicly.
Jackson was ultimately placed in the back of a department patrol car rather than taken directly to a hospital by ambulance, and he says he is now considering legal action over what happened to him. The investigation into Price's conduct is described as being in its early stages, and officials have not disclosed whether he had any prior excessive-force complaints on his record.
A Pattern Seen Beyond Florida
Chattahoochee's case echoes a similar incident in Hercules, California, where police used a Taser three times on a young man named Jack Bruce as he recovered from a grand mal seizure after veering off the road in April 2024. The city of Hercules and the Rodeo-Hercules Fire Protection District later agreed to pay a combined $1.35 million to settle Bruce's federal lawsuit, which alleged excessive force, battery, false arrest, negligence, defamation, and a violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act, according to ktvu.com. Under that settlement, Hercules covered $1.25 million on behalf of the city and its officers, while the fire district and a paramedic paid the remaining $100,000.
As LEVEL Man reported, the Chattahoochee case has drawn attention for raising broader questions about how officers respond to people experiencing medical emergencies rather than committing crimes. For now, Jackson is left weighing his legal options while the internal investigation into Sgt. Price continues, with no timeline yet for when it might conclude.
