Jason Barnum, an American criminal, became somewhat of an international phenomenon in 2012. The 37-year-old approached the courtroom with a tattoo covering the white of his right eye, earning him the nickname “Eyeball,” as he pleaded guilty to shooting a police officer in Anchorage, Alaska.
Barnum’s history was marred by erratic behavior, and he eventually received the punishment he deserved. However, he unwittingly became an internet sensation.
As Jason began serving his lengthy sentence, another perplexing rumor emerged around the world. According to an advertisement, his father was one of the most well-known American performers. The truth has now been disclosed.
Jason Barnum had led a bad life for many years before it eventually caught up with him in September 2012.
Barnum was sleeping in an Anchorage motel when the cops broke into his room and he fired his rifle. As a result, he injured a police officer, suffered injuries himself, and was sentenced to more than 20 years in prison. However, it was his tattooed eyeball that made him renowned.
So, let’s look at what happened. Who is Jason Barnum, known as “Eyeball”?
Three Anchorage police officers investigated car break-ins and burglaries on September 12, 2012. At a news conference, Anchorage Police Chief Mark Mew stated that the burglaries typically occurred when people were at home. During their investigation, the officers discovered a vehicle linked to the crimes in a parking lot near a hotel.
The cops saw something strange on the hotel video camera, which showed a man taking some things from the van into room 209. After discovering a stolen gun, cops handcuffed a man inside. In the bathroom, cops heard a woman making “retching sounds,” as if she was sick.
The authorities asked her to leave the restroom, but she wasn’t alone. According to authorities, Jason Barnum was behind her and began firing a gun as she exited from the bathroom.
Officer Dan Thyen, a 15-and-a-half-year member of the police force at the time, was shot by Barnum. He was hit in the back, but his injuries were not life threatening.
The policeman stormed out of the hotel room, shooting back at Barnum, and soon several other cops joined in. The cops removed the hotel’s guests. SWAT police were on the site not long after.
Officers spoke to Jason Barnum through the door, according to Police Chief Mark Mew. He surrendered not long after. During a press conference, he claimed Barnum was a heroin user who had signs of drug use after the incident.
“Someone just blasting away from behind a door, that’s unusual,” Mew said. “And, of course they responded in kind, rather quickly.”
He earned the nickname “Eyeball” after having his right eyeball tattooed black. Jason Barnum was handcuffed, led out of his hotel room, and placed on a stretcher to be transferred to the hospital. He had been shot in the right arm, but after a quick trip to the hospital, he was taken into police custody.
Police discovered jewelry, jewelry boxes, and other items in a hotel room backpack. Barnrum had gone on a criminal spree, including stealing cars and burglarizing homes, to support his heroin addiction. Barnum was charged with attempted murder and two counts of criminal assault just one day after the event. His bail was set at $500,000 dollars.
At the hearing, when asked if he had read the criminal complaint and if he wanted an attorney, he responded, “Sure, why not.”
Jason Barnum had been involved in illegal behavior before the shooting at the hotel. He had previously been charged with and convicted of 14 offences, including four felonies. He was also convicted of burglary, theft, violence, and resisting arrest. Barum claimed he had not worked in six months before being arrested at the hotel.
The fact that a single person fired – and perhaps killed – a police officer was, of course, horrifying. But what the world saw when Jason Barnum came into the courtroom made him a renowned felon.
Skulls and skeletons shrouded Barnum’s face. While his lips were rimmed with skeleton teeth, it was his right eyeball that had everyone worried. It was fully tattooed black, earning him the moniker “Eyeball.” It was never known where or why he had done it.
His right eye’s whites had been tattooed black. It was a relatively new practice at the time, and it was accomplished by introducing ink beneath the surface of the eye. According to the National Post, the pigment gets caught in the sclera, or the white of the eye, and the ink gradually spreads about to cover the entire eyeball.
Because to eyeball and face tattoos, I was unable to obtain employment. While some people have done it, getting the eyeball tattooed is a highly dangerous technique. Infections, inflammations, and even blindness might result.
“I think Jason Barnum decided a long time ago that his life was about being hostile to people,” Anchorage Police Department Chief Mark Mew told local reporters. “It seems to me that he wakes up everyday wanting to do bad things to innocent folks and wants everybody to know it.”
Barnum said that he couldn’t get a job because of his face and hence became a criminal.
“I was living on the streets, and I tried to get a job, but of course, my beautiful face didn’t allow me to do that,” Barnum said during the hearing.
Barnum accepted some of the guilt when describing his criminal history. However, he blamed some of it on the Alaska Department of Corrections, claiming he received no assistance after leaving prison in 2010.
At his sentencing hearing, Barnum said, “Everybody knows that I’m not the nicest guy. I understand that what I did was wrong, I can’t take none of it back.”
“I tried man, I apolozige to the folks who are hurt from this.”
While an eye tattoo may be frightening for some, it is critical to understand that just because one individual has that type of tattoo, we cannot judge them beforehand.
Of fact, Barnum had been a crook for years, but it was most likely not the tattoo that made him a criminal. Having said that, the atrocities he did were heinous.
After shooting a police officer, Jason “Eyeball” Barnum was sentenced to 22 years in prison. Before the punishment was handed out, Police Chief Officer Mark Mew addressed the issue.
“I’m going to stick my neck out here and state the obvious. I’d like you to take a look at Mr. Barnum. He has the right to do this to himself and to express himself,” he said. “We can’t sentence him for that, but I think we can consider a guy’s attitude and his behavior.
Jason “Eyeball” Barnum was convicted and sentenced to 22 years in prison in 2015. Barnum pled guilty to attempted murder, a consolidated first-degree burglary charge, and third-degree weapons misconduct, according to Deputy District Attorney Clint Campion.
While he was pleased with the outcome, the penalty could have been worse if Barnum had been convicted following a trial.
“But there’s always risk with going to trial,” Campion said. “There was a lot of litigation in the case, some of which went our way and some that was still undecided.”
So, what about the eyeball tattoo, which Jason Barnum dubbed “Eyeball.” It’s safe to say it’s risky, but how bad could it get?
An eyeball tattoo is extremely dangerous, according to John A. Hovanesian, MD, clinical spokesperson for the American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO) and surgeon at Harvard Eye Associates in Laguna Hills. As previously said, one could get completely blind or lose an eye.
Eyeball tattoos had not been examined medically or scientifically as of 2020. While the ink itself can cause significant damage to the eye, the needle is also a cause for concern. A false tale concerning Jason “Eyeball” Barnum and Harrison Ford has gone viral on the internet.
If the ink is not properly positioned, it can be injected within the eye, onto the retina, or into the tissue that surrounds the eye. According to Hovanesian, these errors can have dire repercussions.
“It is particularly devastating to any patient who decides to have their eyes tattooed, as removing the eye might be the only way to reduce the incredible pain that would frequently follow this ghastly procedure,” Hovanesian told the Ophthalmology Times. “It is not worth it, it would be tragic to lose your sight.”
If Jason “Eyeball” Barnum got his eyeball tattoo in prison, the odds of serious effects for his eye are much higher. The method of making ink, whether by adding carbon into soap or utilizing ink from ballpoint pens, is most certainly not sanitary and poses a health concern, according to Dr. Kathleen Rice of the Eye Clinic of Fairbanks.
“A surgeon who has to go in there and clean up the eye, they don’t know what was used,” she told the Anchorage Daily News. “They don’t know what sort of bugs could be in there.”
While there is no official information about where Jason Barnum, now 46, is serving his term, according to his claimed Facebook profile, he is serving his time at the Spring Creek Correctional Center in Seward, Alaska, as of 2017.
Meanwhile, information about him and his putative father has spread over the internet. as demonstrated above. According to an advertisement, he is the son of famed Hollywood actor Harrison Ford.
The Indiana Jones and Star Wars star appeared with “Eyball” Barnum in a Revcontent story captioned “Harrison Ford has pretty much given up on his son.”
The sad and unfortunate rumor is completely false. However, many people are surely asking if the irresponsible and incorrect allegation is true, which it is not.
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