JACKSONVILLE BEACH, Fla. – A zombie photo shoot at a Jacksonville Beach cemetery has some families upset, saying the move was disrespectful to their loved ones.
They say they don't know the intentions or if the people involved even thought about what they were doing, but they want to make it clear that what they did is poor taste and unacceptable.
"This is my father's grave and his ashes were buried here about six weeks ago," Cam Altee Brown said.
There's a lot of history and emotion for Brown in H. Warren Smith Cemetery at Beach Boulevard and Penman Road. Not far from her father's grave is her mother's and many family friends'.
The pictures taken at the cemetery for the photo shoot are upsetting to her.
"These are just sacred grounds. You don't do that," Brown said.
She said others with loved ones there agree.
"We were just horrified," Brown said. "My father would be horrified because he was such a proper man. We were just really upset that, before coming in here, being ghoulish and bloody-looking costumes, and use this graveyard as entertainment."
Apparently, a group did a photo shoot and had people dressed as zombies roaming the grounds. Channel 4 learned that Jacksonville Beach clothing store and tattoo shop Carribbean Connection had a role in it. Their employees confirmed it but referred Channel 4 to the owner, who hasn't called back.
"I don't have any problem with the pictures being taken," Brown said. "It was the ghoulish news of it that we were all really upset about."
The cemetery is run by the city of Jacksonville Beach and is open to the public, so apparently those involved in the photo shoot didn't break the law. But Brown and her friends say they hope others learn a lesson and that this act of bad taste doesn't happen again.
"I hope they don't -- whatever they were going to use this for, an advertisement or whatever -- I hope they don't use it now," Brown said.