Good Guy with a Gun #148: Melrose, FL (Free post)

A man suffering a psychotic break choked his own child and broke a trucker's arm. The bullet that ended his rampage passed through a Bible. | Original incident: March 28, 2024

These posts are based on our Good Guy with a Gun calendar. If you bought or received a calendar, contact me for a complementary subscription. Today’s post is somewhat updated from the calendar version.

This is an ugly story.

It took place on a Wednesday. Jason Kaercher, 26, had been deteriorating since earlier in the week — so badly, in fact, that relatives (sounds like it was his parents) took his three-month-old child into their home.

I hear “deteriorating” and I wonder about drug use. According to this public Facebook comment by his sister, Alejandra, he wasn’t taking drugs; when you hear the rest of the story, you’ll wonder if maybe he should have been.

Yes, the baby. Kaercher had gone to the home with his relatives and his wife to meet with the Department of Children and Families (DCF) for an assessment. He and his wife asked to step out side for a few minutes to get some air, and they took the baby with them.

The screaming started.

The relatives and DCF found Kaercher in the back seat of a vehicle, squeezing the baby. The child was turning blue.

The DCF person called 911. Kaercher got out of the car and started walking toward the road, holding the baby and a Bible. Then he started squeezing the child again, who again started turning blue, while “stating he was ‘God,’” as the police report says in its dry, understated way.

You probably have the same image I do, and the same dread: Crazed man, squeezing a child, shouting “I am God! I am God!”

WCJB did, too, though it doesn’t quite say that in the police report.

The family members, of course, were trying to get the baby away from him. One of them grabbed a shovel to help convince him to let the baby go. Cars were stopping on the road, including a work crew.

So Kaercher lay down in the street, on top of the baby and the Bible. There’s that dread again. But something prompted him to get up, and someone was able to snatch the baby away to safety.

The work crew tried to restrain him, and the relative put the shovel down. That was a mistake: Kaercher broke free of the men, grabbed the shovel (still holding the Bible), and started smashing vehicles. He yanked open a truck door and struck the truck driver with it, breaking both the trucker’s arm and the shovel.

He dropped the shovel. Someone else grabbed it and started hitting him with it to get him to stop. That distracted him from the trucker for just a moment.

By the time Kaercher turned back to the trucker, he had pulled out his gun. He fired multiple times; the shot that hit Kaercher in the chest went through the Bible.

Thankfully, that finally stopped him.

You can layer in whatever symbolism you want to about the bullet passing through the Bible. Clearly it strikes a chord: Every article, from the original police report onward, mentions it.

Here’s what I like to think. If his sister is right, and this represented a psychotic break rather than a drug-infused rage, then maybe the Bible slowed the bullet down enough to prevent it from killing him. Maybe it left open the possibility of his future redemption.

Not for me to judge, though. What I can say is that Kaercher and the truck driver were hospitalized, and that no charges were brought against the truck driver.

And I’m trusting the Facebook comment above, both that it’s really by Kaercher’s sister, and that the baby is also safe and healthy.

Sources

Primary

Putnam County Sheriff’s Office posted to Facebook about this incident. Honestly, they did a great job, and this is really the only source you need. Even I’ve added very little here beyond what they wrote.

Central Florida Scanner is a Facebook group, and it summarized the PCSO’s post. Their post is a primary source, though, in that it contains several comments from Alejandra Kaercher, Jason’s sister, including the one I placed at the top of this story.

Local news

Action News Jax and WCJB 20 covered the story.

The Palatka Daily News did as well, but it’s behind a firewall.

Specialist press

Ammoland posted this story. They embedded video from a YouTube channel I didn’t know called “Smoke Tales,” which is dedicated to Concealed Carry stories. The intro to the video is about 40 seconds long, so stick with it or skip it if you want to check them out.

Brandon Curtis also covered it at Concealed Nation.