JACKSONIVLLE, Fla. – A Jacksonville woman was out walking her dogs in an Arlington neighborhood on Wednesday night when she was suddenly hit in the face by a speeding paintball.
The impact was so forceful, it caused her eyeglasses to break, leaving her unable to see who fired the shot.
The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office investigator who responded to the neighboorhood just off Monument Road noted that the woman, who spoke to News4Jax and asked to be identified only as “Andy," had a cut on her nose. Orange paint covered her forehead.
“When I put my hands on my face, I had blood all over my hands and I don’t do well with blood so I fell to the ground," she told News4Jax.
She said had it not been for the eyeglasses she was wearing at the time, she might have lost an eye.
Andy, 50, said she is still shaken up and the incident has caused her to consider selling her home and moving to another part of town.
“I’m not walking my dogs at night anymore,” Andy said.
According to JSO incident report, Andy wasn’t the only person hit by a paintball on Brookwood Forest Boulevard that night.
Another victim, a 36-year-old woman, said she was in the parking lot of the Brookwood Club Apartments when she was shot multiple times with what she first thought was a BB gun. After she was hit on her backside, the woman told investigators she ran to her nearby apartment. She suffered minor injuries, according to the report.
Two witnesses told investigators the shots came from the rear driver’s side of a gray Mazda hatchback, but they were unable to get a look at the people inside because the windows were tinted. No one caught the license plate and investigators didn’t see any surveillance video, according to the report.
According to JSO, another person was shot by a paintball gun on New Year’s Eve in the same area.
After the investigation hit a dead-end, Andy said she hopes sharing her story will ultimately help find out who shot the paintballs.
The unknown suspect, or suspects, could face battery charges.