Jason Barnum shot a police officer inside an Anchorage, Alaska, hotel room in 2012 and was later sent to prison for more than 20 years. More than a decade on, the Jason Barnum eyeball tattoo keeps his name alive online, not the gunfire.
Most people who share his photo have no idea what he actually did. The story behind the picture is far darker than the meme.
A hotel room shootout in south Anchorage
Anchorage police had been chasing a run of car break-ins and burglaries on the south side of the city. That investigation led officers to a hotel room where Barnum was staying. When they entered, he opened fire.
One officer was hit. His colleagues shot back as they pulled out of the room, and the situation grew quickly. More police arrived, staff and officers cleared guests out of the building, and a SWAT team soon took up position. The wounded officer survived.
In the room, officers found a backpack full of jewelry and other valuables. Detectives later worked out the bigger picture. Barnum had been on a spree, stealing cars and breaking into homes to raise money for heroin.
He was charged with one count of attempted murder and two counts of felony assault. A judge set bail at $500,000. Asked whether he understood the charges and wanted a lawyer, Barnum shrugged it off with “Sure, why not.”
Anchorage police knew him well. Before the hotel shooting, he had already been accused of and convicted of 14 other crimes. He had walked out of prison in 2010, roughly two years earlier.
Why the Jason Barnum eyeball tattoo caused such a stir
Barnum was 37 when he appeared in court and pleaded guilty to shooting the officer. Almost nobody in the room was looking at the paperwork. Tattoos covered much of his body, but the white of his right eye had been inked completely black.
The procedure is known as scleral tattooing, where ink is injected into the white of the eye. It has become more familiar in recent years through body-modification communities on social media. In 2012, most people had never seen one. Eye specialists have long warned that it carries real risks, including infection and permanent damage to sight.
Images of Barnum, some of them from Anchorage broadcaster KTUU-TV, spread fast. Within days he had a nickname that stuck: “Eyeball.”
Barnum offered the court his own account of how he got there. He said he had been homeless and had tried to find a job, but claimed no one would hire him because of the way he looked. He made the point with heavy sarcasm, referring to his own face as beautiful.
He took most of the blame for what happened. He also pointed a finger at the Alaska Department of Corrections, saying it gave him no help after his release in 2010, and he apologized to the people he had hurt.
A police chief’s blunt reply
Anchorage Police Chief Mark Mew had little sympathy for that argument. Speaking to local reporters, he said Barnum appeared to have decided long ago that his life would be built around hostility. In Mew’s view, Barnum seemed to get up every morning intending to harm innocent people, and he wanted the world to see it.
Mew raised the tattoo again before sentencing. He told the court Barnum had every right to do what he liked with his own body and to express himself, and that nobody could be sentenced for a tattoo. His point was narrower. A court, he argued, could still take a man’s attitude and conduct into account.
Barnum was sentenced to more than 20 years.
The Harrison Ford rumor and where Barnum is now
The case took an odd turn once Barnum’s photos went viral. A rumor began circulating that he was the son of Harrison Ford, the actor best known as Han Solo and Indiana Jones.
At least one version surfaced in an article distributed through the Revcontent network, which ran Barnum’s picture alongside Ford’s under a headline claiming the actor had given up on his son. The story was false. Barnum is not related to Ford.
It was an early example of a pattern that has only grown since. A striking mugshot or courtroom image goes viral, and clickbait networks attach it to a famous name to harvest clicks.
Barnum himself has stayed out of public view since his conviction. He is reported to be serving his sentence at Spring Creek Correctional Center in Seward, Alaska, the state’s maximum-security prison.
