JACKSONVILLE BEACH, Fla. – During the daylight hours, Jacksonville Beach attracts thousands of people to its shoreline, restaurants and shops. But according to the city's mayor, things change when the sun goes down.
The shooting death of 23-year-old Glen McNeil Jr. in downtown Jacksonville Beach early Wednesday morning may have been a rare occurrence in the popular tourist location. But Jacksonville Beach Mayor Charlie Latham said the tragic incident is yet another example of how Jacksonville Beach becomes another city after dark.
Latham told News4Jax that area of Jacksonville Beach has become a tale of two cities -- one for families during the day and watering hole at night.
"Our city transitions at 10 or 11 o'clock at night from a family-oriented downtown with restaurants and entertainment for people into a drinking facility," Latham said. "Let's be honest with each other -- that creates problems."
Problems that increasingly require a lot of calls to 911.
"Of those calls, greater than 90 percent, probably close to a 100 percent, involve alcohol and that creates a problem for us," Latham said.
A problem that Latham has vowed to fix by working with the Florida Division of Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco to crack down on businesses that are over serving alcohol and not carding underage customers.
"We're going to be doing some workshops here to talk about special events and probably open the door about alcohol in general and talk about what we can do to keep this under control," Latham said.
But will that be enough to ease the problem?
"You can't really control what's going to happen," said Ronnie Munday, a Jacksonville Beach resident.
And that was evident early Wednesday morning when police said McNeil was shot to death near the corner of First Avenue North and First Street North.
"This happened at 1:30 (a.m.). People were not having hamburgers at McDonald's at 1:30. They were out drinking and doing things that create problems sometimes," Latham said.
Problems the mayor is fighting to stop.
"I can tell you we have good actors and bad actors and we're doing our very best to get the bad actors under control. That just doesn't apply to bars and restaurants. That applies to visitors and patrons as well," Latham said.
McNeil was the second person killed in Jacksonville Beach within one week -- after the community had no murders during all of 2016.