JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 A violent robbery witnessed by multiple children in Jacksonville\u2019s Lakeshore neighborhood sent two men to the hospital and forced nearby businesses \u2014 including a kids\u2019 gymnastics meet \u2014 to shut down in the middle of the day.<\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n
Investigators say shots were going back and forth, hitting cars and businesses on Shirley Avenue, including a dog boarding day care. <\/p>\n
Just steps away, a gymnastics meet for children was happening at the Gyminators gym in the same shopping complex.<\/p>\n
Staff, parents, and children heard the gunshots, and some even witnessed the incident. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe 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,\u201d Gyminators Owner Paula Falls said. \u201cSo we brought everybody in and brought them into the back of the gym for safety.\u201d<\/p>\n
The meet was canceled.<\/p>\n
Falls says this kind of violence is something they\u2019ve never experienced here in over 20 years.<\/p>\n
According to the Jacksonville Sheriff\u2019s Office, the clerk was shot in the chest and rushed to the hospital with life-threatening injuries.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
A manager at the smoke shop insisted the shooting did not happen inside the business.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt wasn\u2019t a store robbery because the smoke shop, there\u2019s nothing to rob in here, so there\u2019s nothing worth losing your life over, so nothing in here, like, got there\u2019s no blood or nothing, so it didn\u2019t happen in here. It didn\u2019t involve the smoke shop either,\u201d manager Roni Masabni said.<\/p>\n
There are several people detained in relation to this incident, and there is no further threat to the community, according to police.<\/p>\n