JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Police released new evidence Tuesday in the case against a woman accused of shooting a Jacksonville Sheriff's Officer multiple times.
Police body-worn camera footage shows the woman, Diamonds Ford, and her boyfriend, Anthony Gantt, being taken into custody following the non-fatal shooting in September 2020. You can view that bodycam video below.
Photographs document the injuries to the officer, who was saved from much worse by his body armor.
Bodycam video shows Gantt said he was sound asleep when police say they announced their presence.
"They said they hopped on the intercom -- I didn't hear any of that," Gantt says from the back seat of a JSO patrol car. "I didn't hear no 'come out,' I didn't hear the first thing. I'm in that b**** dead sleep."
Ford, age 28, says she thought the officer was an intruder. Instead, he was a SWAT officer, part of a team helping Drug Enforcement Administration agents serve a high-risk warrant for suspected drug trafficking.
DEA was conducting a joint operation with JSO at the home where Ford was staying on Rutledge Pearson Drive. Ford told her attorney she was awoken to the sound of a window in the home being broken and loud noises coming from outside.
In police interview video, Gantt tells investigators he told Ford to shoot.
"I told her, I push on the bed, grab her gun, tell her 'shoot, shoot,' cause we gonna die," Gantt says in the video. "I don't know what's going on. So boom, she shot. Then after she shot out the window, I said we got to move man, cause we gonna get hit sitting here."
Ford shot through the window, believing someone was attempting to burglarize the home, her attorney said. The bullet hit an officer who was taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
Story continues below.
WARNING: GRAPHIC LANGUAGE in video below.
Ford says the officers did not identify themselves, but officials say they used a public address system to announce their presence and the reason they were there. Both defendants face attempted murder charges and have pleaded not guilty.
Following her September arrest, Ford posted bail in February after community organizations across the country including Dignity Power, the National Bail Fund Network and the Minnesota Freedom Fund coordinated to raise more than $530,000 to free her, according to a news release. Her attorneys and community activists call her arrest unjust and an example of systemic racism within the police agency.
First Coast News is continuing to comb through the newly released evidence and will continue to update this developing story.