JACKSONVILLE, FL. — Action News Jax’s Ben Becker visited the pond where former football star Louis Nix III was found, and has been reviewing new police body camera video from the night officers were called out to the scene.
The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office is conducting an internal investigation into the actions of the officers at the pond.
Louis Nix’s mother and Action News Jax’s law and safety expert Dale Carson have a lot of questions about what happened that night based on the call and video.
JSO body camera video gives us the first glimpse of what officers saw on Feb. 23, the night Nix drove into a North Jacksonville pond.
In the video you can hear a JSO officer say, “Doesn’t look that deep right here. It is deep, I guarantee you it’s deep. That’s fresh there.”
The officer was referring to fresh tire tracks at the pond on Broxton Bay Drive.
Just three minutes before, JSO received a 911 call after a woman witnessed Nix’s car drive into the water. She met police on the scene.
Becker showed the body camera video to Nix’s mother, Stephanie Wingfield.
Later in the video, you can see an officer throw a rope with a crowbar attached into the water.
Carson said it’s highly unlikely a rope on a crowbar would have found the car, and believes the dive team should have been called out.
The next day, Nix was reported missing by his family. His car was discovered in the pond four days later, on Feb. 27, when his body floated to the surface.
A supplemental police report said that investigators concluded Nix was driving the wrong way on the road, hit the median, then went off the road into the pond.
An autopsy report said his blood alcohol content was above the legal driving limit and there was marijuana in his system.
Ultimately, the medical examiner ruled Nix’s death a drowning.
Nix’s mother isn’t sure her son could have been saved, but thinks more should have been done.
Cox Media Group
