Video shows car club meet-up in same area where 17-year-old was shot

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A viewer sent News4JAX a video showing a car club meet-up Saturday night near Ortega.

It’s the same area where the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office said a 17-year-old was shot.

The shooting happened around midnight at the Winn Dixie in Ventia Village. The 17-year-old was taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

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As of right now, News4JAX has not been able to confirm the shooting was connected to the car club meet-up.

On Sunday morning, the parking lot was still covered in tire marks.

JSO said it doesn’t have any information on a suspect, and they say the violent crimes unit will follow up.

News4Jax has covered multiple car club meetup stories, detailing the lifestyle of those who do them and how some people in the community perceive these meetings.

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One business owner who said he’s been victim to these car club meet-ups damaging his parking lot says this is really an inconvenience to businesses.

“It’s intimidating to the store owners that are up there. They do it right in front of those stores. They don’t care. I’ve seen them almost hit trees, they almost hit the cars in the parking lots. It’s just a big mess,” said business owner James Hamilton.

Hamilton said it can cost up to $70,000 to repair a parking lot.

“To redo a parking lot for what they’ve done, you can’t just do a portion. You have to do the whole parking lot area. It would be between 60 and $70,000.”

Hamilton told News4Jax back in December about car clubs damaging parking lots for his business.

It’s unclear if the gunman, victim, and car club are related.

Former JSO officer James Brown said based on the information from JSO - he thinks there was an altercation that may involve the car club.

“So there is a high probability that they are related. However, until they gather more information from the victim, hopefully, he will be able to provide some insight,” said Brown.

Hamilton said he’s uncomfortable after learning about the shooting and hates that it happened. He said one of his employees told him about donut tire marks on another property from yesterday.

If anyone has any information about the shooting they are asked to call JSO.


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A Florida-born, Emmy Award winning journalist and proud NC A&T SU grad