JACKSONVILLE BEACH, Fla. – Flyers for “Drunk Day at the Beach” drew hundreds of young people to Jacksonville Beach on Sunday before the three separate shootings that left three people injured and one person dead.
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The Jacksonville Beach Police Department posted video of fighting at the beach on its Instagram page.
It was a little before 8:00 p.m. when police said the shooting began, leading to two of the shooters being shot themselves and a third person, an innocent bystander from out of town, in serious condition after being hit three times.
“It unfortunately seems to be the culture that those gang members have,” said News4JAX crime and safety analyst Tom Hackney.
Jacksonville Beach Police Chief Gene Paul Smith said one of those shooters is a confirmed gang member. Hackney said although police haven’t said the three shootings are necessarily related, he suspects they are.
“You look at the time and the proximity of them, and then you figure there’s a couple of hundred people who’ve made their way from the sand, from underneath the pier...and then gunfire still continues. You have to make some assumptions there that they could be related,” Hackney said.
Between the three shootings, there may have been at least six guns involved.
“We talk fairly often from a law enforcement standpoint about where these guns come from, and the vast majority that we find come from car burglaries or house burglaries,” Hackney said.
News4JAX data found that 192 guns were stolen from cars over a period of less than four months in 2020 and 2021.
According to the Centers for Disease Control, gun-related deaths for kids and teens have been rising since the pandemic, surpassing car crashes as the top cause of death for children.
You can call CrimeStoppers at 1-866-845-8477 to submit anonymous tips about the shootings.