JACKSONVILLE BEACH, Fla. – A crowd of people was sprayed with what witnesses described as “Mace” during a fight on Memorial Day in Jacksonville Beach, police said.
According to a Jacksonville Beach Police incident report, around 6:30 p.m. Monday about 30 to 40 people were spotted by an officer yelling and screaming in a parking garage near a Best Western.
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When the officer approached the large group, he said several people “appeared to be in physical distress,” and witnesses told the officer that a woman had sprayed something like pepper spray into the crowd.
The spray hit the crowd of bystanders, many of whom were teenagers, and officers provided water and paper towels and directed people to a nearby rinse-off station to flush their eyes, the report said.
The officer’s report included three victims -- two females and one male -- with severe eye irritation and coughing. The man’s nose was also bleeding, the report said. Officers were unable to determine how the nose injury occurred.
A witness later told police she took a photograph of a woman she said sprayed the crowd.
The woman has not been publicly identified by police.