PENSACOLA, FL - A Pensacola Police Officer is on paid administrative leave after he hit and killed a man he was chasing.

Officer Jerald Ard was patrolling Cervantes Street early Saturday morning when he saw a suspicious man on a bike at a construction site.

He told him to stop, but the man took off.

Police say during the pursuit, the man fell off his bike and into the path of Ard's cruiser in a parking lot off of "R" Street.

Channel Three's Jake Peterson joins us live.

Jake, who's investigating this?

Sue, the Florida Department Of Law Enforcement.

That's standard procedure when a suspect dies.

There are still plenty of markings showing what happened here, but the biggest help for investigators will be the testimony of about a dozen people who watched it all go down.

This cell phone video shows the crowd standing outside Sluggo's restaurant the morning of the incident.

"It was pretty horrific. I would never want to see it again."

Sharon Kirby was at Sluggo's chatting with friends when she saw a man on a bike.

"The guy was going pretty fast - as fast as he could on his bike."

She says Officer Ard tried shooting a taser from his car, but he missed. Then the biker went into the parking lot of a vacant bank.

"The guy on the bike swerved into the bank parking lot that was right there; kinda jumped off his bike; took about two steps; the cop car was so close to him.
It nudge him then completely ran over him then the car hit the curb."

Kirby says the crowd just watched in horror.

Witnesses say several people started filming with their cell phones, but officers got defensive and threatened to take the phones.

The FDLE is reviewing all statements and video from Saturday morning.

"I think he used really poor judgment and it turned out for the worst it was pretty awful and i think a few different choices he could have made could have made this have better results.

"The guy had gotten off his bike he should have gotten out of his cop car and chased him down or something."

Investigators have not identified the victim.

They say he had no ID on him and nobody has reported someone with his description missing.

Witnesses say he was a black male in his teens or early twenties with dreadlocks.Police Chase Leads To Fatal Accident