JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Surveillance video shows what happened as the chaos unfolded from a shooting at the Paxon Shopping Center Plaza on Wednesday night that left one man dead and another injured.
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News4JAX has covered complaints about late-night car meetups, loud music and weekend racing at the plaza. That parking lot became a crime scene Wednesday night, witnesses and the Paxon Liquor manager said.
Josie, Paxon Liquor manager, who was not working at the time, said her employees told her what happened and that surveillance video captured people reacting to the gunfire.
“The guy said, ‘I was here when they started trying to rob somebody over there, and they left them alone.’ I guess he gave him a couple warning shots or something like that I heard, and he did not pay attention that they were following him, and then they caught up to him right here, trying to finish whatever,” Josie said.
She described the surveillance footage showing people running and taking shelter behind a truck after shots were fired.
“You see them running — people start running away. They’re taking shelter behind that KBS truck,” she said.
Josie said the video appears to show someone who may have been shot taking shelter briefly before moving again.
“That’s where he’s taking shelter for a second, then jumps around and hides right here for a second,” she said.
A friend of one of the victims who was shot described the situation.
“With my friend in the parking lot, we were just hanging out talking, it took us by surprise out of the middle of nowhere, somebody came from behind us while standing right beside the victim, my friend and he opened fire six shots. Felt the heat off, the blood go across my face, I seen him get shot in the chest and torso, and I had another friend get shot in the leg. After that, the guy ran off but he was all covered up, all black...”
She identified her friend as a man named Corey. He is a father to a two-year-old daughter who was just approved for a house.
“I know it has nothing to do with the customers at Paxton, this came from across the street into the parking lot,” she said.
Both men were taken to the hospital. Corey died; the other was in stable condition, the sheriff’s office said. Investigators are working to determine what led to the shooting and who is responsible.