JACKSONVILLE BEACH, Fla. – A 29-year-old man has been charged with two counts of attempted homicide after police said he shot two men Friday morning on the patio of a Jacksonville Beach homeless center, police said.
The victims suffered serious injuries and were being treated at Memorial Hospital, police said.
James Michael Moore was booked into the Duval County Jail. He made his first appearance before a judge Saturday morning.
Police said Friday afternoon that Moore does not appear to have had a previous relationship with the two men he shot. According to the arrest report, Moore walked out of the center to smoke a cigarette and then opened fire on the two men, whose backs were to him.
Chief Pat Dooley, with the Jacksonville Beach Police Department, said earlier in the day that Moore was taken into custody at Sunrise Surf Shop just over a block away from where the shooting was reported on the patio of Mission House ib Shetter Avenue.
The 911 calls about the shooting came in just before 11 a.m.
Police said they will not release the names of the two victims until they are certain all of their immediate family has been notified.
Dooley said investigators found the handgun used in the shooting tossed between the Mission House facility and the surf shop, which was evacuated.
News4Jax producer Carianne Luter was in the store at the time.
"I was in Sunrise Surf Shop when two men walked up -- a cop in a bullet-proof vest -- (who) told us that we had to leave the building," Luter said. "He said there was an active shooting situation and they were looking for a guy and they found him crouched outside the building."
Dooley said about 30 witnesses were on the homeless center property during the shooting, and more than a dozen were taken to the police station for questioning because they have more information about the incident.
Moore was known to people at the shelter, police said.
While police said they've never seen this level of violence at the center, they regularly have calls to the area, which is in a neighborhood called The Hill, which is known at the beaches as an area where drug use is common.
"I wasn't really surprised," Frank Sobczak said of the shooting. "(It was) going to happen sooner or later."
Moore has also been charged with carrying a concealed weapon.