JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – News4Jax went back to the Northside neighborhood Wednesday where a woman said her house was targeted in a random act of violence.
Jeanine Herrington, a local lawyer, said she was home with her 3-year-old daughter when dozens of bullets riddled the house. According to the police report, Herrington told police she thought the house might have been wrongly targeted by gang members.
Recommended Videos
Gang graffiti had previously been sprayed on the house, and the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office Gang Task Force is investigating.
News4Jax crime and safety analyst Gil Smith spoke with people in the neighborhood about their safety.
Seven-year resident Ronnie Mack said he feels safe in the neighborhood.
"Right there was kind of out of the ordinary, but you never know," Mack said.
It might be a rare occurrence, but recent violence in the Waterbrook Falls subdivision has the people who live there on edge. Several neighbors said a neighborhood watch program has been in place in the past but needs to be reinstated.
"It's necessary, because if there's a drive-by shooting like that there, that ain't good," Mack said.
Police don't know who shot or why nearly 25 slugs were fired into Herrington's home near New Kings Road and Interstate 295 nearly two weeks ago.
Herrington said she was in the shower and her daughter was watching TV when the shots ripped through her home. Wednesday she said the shooting is a reminder that the community needs to look out for one another.
"Reporting something or suspicious activity, it's something we all have to work together, because nobody can do it by themselves," Herrington said. "Parents can't do it by themselves. Schools can't do it by themselves. And the Sheriffs Office can't do it by themselves."
Herrington said she just doesn't feel comfortable staying at the home right now with her daughter. She said it's not livable because there's shattered glass all over the inside of the home from where bullets struck the windows.
Neighbor Clifton Daniels, who's lived in the area 15 years, said nothing like that had happened in the neighborhood before. He said the worst crime he'd heard of in the area before the shooting was a car theft.