Brother of man shot and killed by JSO says he was suffering from mental illness, ‘no one could rationalize with him’

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A man who was involved in an hours-long standoff with SWAT that started Tuesday night was fatally shot by officers when he tried to get to a neighboring home on Lenox Avenue while carrying a gun, according to the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office.

The man, 44-year-old Calixto Beavenutti, died at the scene.

“The whole family is devastated,” said brother George Beavenutti. “He was suffering through mental illness. And he needed some help. He suffered with a lot of backpain and I guess he had been turning to other drugs.”

George Beavenutti said his brother had severe mental health issues.

Waters said it’s unclear if anyone was in the home with Beavenutti during the standoff or if anyone was in the neighboring home he was trying to get to, but it’s not a chance officers could take.

“You can not allow him to take a hostage,” Waters said.

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News4JAX asked George Beavenutti if he was bothered by how police handled the situation.

“I feel like the police tried the best they could,” he said. “They brought their team to try to talk him out of it and get him to surrender and give up his firearm. He was at a point where no one could really rationalize with him.”

George Beavenutti was at the scene of the shooting on Wednesday, cleaning up the home. He had the rest of the family leave, and they won’t return until the crime scene is cleaned up.

JSO Chief Alan Parker said the incident began just after 8 p.m. Tuesday when officers were called to Lenox Avenue, about a half mile east of Fouraker Road on the city’s Westside.

He said multiple callers reported a man was yelling and firing off gunshots in the area, with approximately eight to 10 shots reported.

When officers got to the scene, they said the man, later identified as Beavenutti, came out of a home with a gun and yelled back and forth with them. Parker said Beavenutti did not aim the gun at the officers at that point, but he wouldn’t listen to their commands and went back inside the home.

Parker said that’s when the patrol officers backed off, secured the area and called in the SWAT team.

According to JSO, Beavenutti fired off one shot when SWAT arrived, but it’s unclear if it was aimed at the officers.

Parker said the SWAT team members were in contact with Beavenutti for several hours. He said Beavenutti walked in and out of the home with the gun, pointing it at the officers multiple times, but they were in positions of cover, so they did not fire at him at that point.

Parker said the situation escalated when Beavenutti came out of the front door and started heading to a neighbor’s home.

He said the SWAT officers yelled at Beavenutti to “stop” and “drop the gun,” but he wouldn’t, and he tried to get into the neighbor’s home.

“That’s where they had to shoot him,” Parker said.

Beavenutti died at the scene.

“Maybe if they could have waited until he calmed down and do it later in the morning and let it de-escalate. But I understand they gotta’ protect the whole community. You can’t have just anybody shooting off firearms around their neighbors,” George Beavenutti said.

Parker said JSO later learned from family members that Beavenutti, while not diagnosed, shows signs of possible schizophrenia and tries to self-medicate.

According to the family, Beavenutti wasn’t able to access any medications on Tuesday, and he started drinking, and that’s how the situation escalated.

Waters said that while JSO does have co-responders for mental health situations, it’s not always safe to bring them in.

“Whether our co-responders are available or not, you can’t bring a civilian into a situation where it’s ongoing,” Waters said. “We’re not going to do it. I would be incompetent if I did that because we’re going to get someone hurt.”

This was the ninth officer-involved shooting for JSO this year. There were eight officer-involved shootings in all of 2024.

News4JAX reporter Briana Brownlee asked Waters about the uptick.

“The questions (about the number of officer-involved shootings) belong to the individuals that put us in this situation,” Waters said. “We show up because we are called, which is our responsibility. I think we are asking ourselves to get into the minds of individuals who come out with knives and guns; we can’t do that.”

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The three SWAT officers involved were 26-year veteran Phillip McCranie, 10-year veteran Kody Cruz and Shane Lyons, who has been with the department for three years.

It was the first officer-involved shooting for Lyons, the second for Cruz and the third for McCranie.