JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A violent robbery witnessed by multiple children in Jacksonville’s Lakeshore neighborhood sent two men to the hospital and forced nearby businesses — including a kids’ gymnastics meet — to shut down in the middle of the day.
Police said a store clerk in his early 20s ran outside of the Blaze smoke shop after someone tried to steal from the store around 12:45 p.m. Saturday, but then he was confronted by a man who started shooting at him.
Investigators say shots were going back and forth, hitting cars and businesses on Shirley Avenue, including a dog boarding day care.
Just steps away, a gymnastics meet for children was happening at the Gyminators gym in the same shopping complex.
Staff, parents, and children heard the gunshots, and some even witnessed the incident.
“We heard the sound like somebody tapping on our window, and we went to the door to see, and we saw that there was some commotion out there and that there was gunshots,” Gyminators Owner Paula Falls said. “So we brought everybody in and brought them into the back of the gym for safety.”
The meet was canceled.
Falls says this kind of violence is something they’ve never experienced here in over 20 years.
According to the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office, the clerk was shot in the chest and rushed to the hospital with life-threatening injuries.
Sometime later, another man in his early 20s was taken to a hospital in a private car with a gunshot wound to his abdomen and is in critical condition, JSO said.
A manager at the smoke shop insisted the shooting did not happen inside the business.
“It wasn’t a store robbery because the smoke shop, there’s nothing to rob in here, so there’s nothing worth losing your life over, so nothing in here, like, got there’s no blood or nothing, so it didn’t happen in here. It didn’t involve the smoke shop either,” manager Roni Masabni said.
There are several people detained in relation to this incident, and there is no further threat to the community, according to police.
Anyone with information is asked to call JSO at 904-630-0500 or email jsocrimetips@jaxsheriff.org or call Crime Stoppers at 866-845-TIPS.
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