Five days into the new year, Jacksonville's first homicide was a police shooting of a Navy veteran who was armed with two guns and fired one round, according to the Sheriff's Office, which has now released officer-worn body camera video capturing what happened.
In the latest Critical Incident Briefing, Chief of Professional Standards Erica Weber reiterated that these investigations involve multiple interviews and hours of body camera video and forensic analysis and are only a preliminary stage of the ultimate findings between the Sheriff's Office and State Attorney's Office. Discretion also is advised about viewing the footage since it involves a man being killed and the use of expletives.
This one involves the suspect, 34-year-old Daniel Rodgriguez, and wife Abigail following a dramatic and very public domestic altercation outside their Luxor Club apartment on Egrets Nest Drive. The officers were Jeremy Roderick and Jakob Milam.
It started about 8:30 p.m. on Jan. 5 with several people calling 911 over concerns about the couple. A staff member at the apartments said she heard a woman screaming and saw her banging on a vehicle with a man inside. Another witness said she even got on top of his hood slamming on it with both hands. He said he was screeching around in circles trying to whip her off the hood, and eventually did.
He briefly left, but dispatchers were told he came back and was seen with a gun. When the officers questioned the wife, she was calm and downplayed the incident.
"We just got into a little altercation," she said. "... He was trying to leave and I didn't want him to leave, and I sat on the car and I like slid into it when he drove off. And I was just chasing him and the dog."
She said it was over an episode she had because she's been sad about having a stillborn son in December. She said he doesn't like to talk about it, or anything. She confirmed they have guns in the home but said he didn't have one on him.
Roderick then went to talk with the husband who emerged near the residence. He asked if he was armed. The husband responded, “Why are you running up on me” as both officers started walking toward him. Within seconds he's seen starting to reach for his waist and the two officers rush him in a struggle for his gun, and he fires one round, according to Weber. The two officers then shoot him, and his wife comes running in screaming hysterically to stop.
"What did you do, he didn't do anything," she said, crying that her baby's inside. She said he just retired, which is confirmed on the family's GoFundMe that he served in the Navy from 2014-2025 and they were married 16 years.
"In the years leading up to this tragedy, Abigail and Daniel endured immense heartbreak, including both a miscarriage and the loss of their son Carter, who was stillborn at 33 weeks," the GoFundMe said.
Abigail Rodgriguez told Times-Union news partner First Coast News he was "an amazing dad, a good husband. We were just struggling. It’s hard when you have to bury a kid. Parents aren’t supposed to bury their kids, and now I’m burying a husband too.”
She said she feels “empty, I’m destroyed. But I have a little girl I have to raise.”
Weber said another handgun was found on Daniel Rodriguez at the hospital.
