There have been 5 shootings in 24 hours leading to the holiday weekend
The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office is currently investigating a series of five shootings that marked a violent beginning to the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. The initial incident occurred on Thanksgiving Day in downtown Jacksonville, where police responded to a verbal altercation escalating to gunfire in the parking lot of a plaza. Around 12:30 p.m., two men engaged in a dispute in front of a food store on East Union Street. Subsequently, one man walked away, and the other produced a revolver, shooting him in the back. The victim was hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries, and authorities deem it an isolated incident with the motive still under investigation, though early indications suggest it might be related to a monetary dispute.
Following this, another shooting unfolded on Thursday evening when an argument over a vehicle purchase culminated in a man being shot. Just before 6 p.m., two men quarreled over money in a parking lot at the Inn Town Suites Hotel on Beach Boulevard. The seller shot the other man in the arm before fleeing in a silver Dodge Durango. The victim suffered non-life-threatening injuries.
These incidents come in the wake of three separate shootings on Wednesday night, resulting in two fatalities. In the New Town neighborhood, a man was found shot dead, adding to the concerning trend of violence in the area, as indicated by recent crime statistics. Another fatal shooting occurred in the Sunbeam neighborhood, with multiple individuals taken into custody based on descriptions from 911 callers. Additionally, a man with a gunshot wound was dropped off at the hospital on Wednesday night, claiming to have been shot in the Spring Park area, though police found no evidence corroborating his account.
The recent spike in violence has elevated Jacksonville’s current murder total to 138, according to records from News4JAX. In November 2022, the city witnessed 149 murders. The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office urges anyone with information about these incidents to contact them at 904-630-0500 or reach out to Crime Stoppers at 866-845-TIPS.