JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Police are trying to figure out who shot a man found dead in a car in Springfield Sunday late afternoon.
Jacksonville Sheriff's officers said just before 6 p.m., a man in his mid 30's was found dead in a car crashed into a fence at the corner of 4th and Walnut Streets. They said they don't know if the man was targeted or the victim of a random shooting.
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A homicide detective said the victim is a black man and was found in the driver's seat. They said they weren't sure if the car was in motion, but it was in the reverse position.
Officers were called to the scene after someone reported hearing gunshots.
"We are early in the investigation. We really aren't sure what the motivation is but we are working towards that," Lonnie Mills with the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office said. "There may have been another vehicle but like I said we haven't been given that information. None of the citizens that have called have given us that suspect information at all."
Kevin Gilmore recently moved to the neighborhood from North Carolina sand said this is the second homicide in the area in a week.
"It makes me feel very unsettling. I have five children," Gilmore said. "It's pretty bad. And we thought this was a very good area."
He said if he had not gone out to a park with his children to feed the ducks, they would have been in their front yard playing, just yards from the crime scene.
"You know the violence has got to stop around here," he said. "I think a heavier police presence and get all the riff raff out of here, if this community wants to revive itself."
Gilmore said he is giving the neighborhood a chance and said the crime could have happened anywhere. He said it's a beautiful, historic neighborhood and calls the incident "unfortunate."
"I talked to a neighbor and I heard that right by our house, two doors down, but it's all on the same lot, that someone was in the car and shot with an AK-47. I know what type of gun that is, automatic rifle that can go through walls, trees. Like I said, we have 5 kids and all the houses by us are vacant."
Anyone with information on the incident is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 866-845-TIPS.