Courtney Cole – Action News Jax
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The Jacksonville sheriff’s Race is two years away, but there is already one candidate who has confidently stepped up to the plate: Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office Assistant Chief Lakesha Burton.
Action News Jax is the first station Chief Burton is talking to since she filed for office.
Sheriff Mike Williams’ term wraps-up in June 2023. He can not run again, because he will have reached his term limit.
Action News Jax Courtney Cole spoke to Burton about her participation in the historic race in the Jacksonville and the pivotal moment that changed the path of her journey.
The gym at the Police Athletic League on West 33rd Street may just look like an ordinary gym to you…but this is where everything changed for Assistant Chief Lakesha Burton.
“I came to PAL as a result of a police officer seeing more in me, than I saw in myself. And instead of taking me to the juvenile detention facility, he brought me to the Police Athletic League,” Burton explained as a young mother she was in survival mode. “And I remember I went into a store to steal some baby food and Pampers and a police officer…that’s when I first encountered a police officer,” the assistant chief told Cole.
Before Burton could meet the officer who would change her life, she had to face some pretty tough challenges…