A smoke shop employee was seriously injured while confronting a suspected thief outside of the store, according to Jacksonville police.<\/p>\n
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 A Saturday afternoon shooting at a Lakeshore shopping plaza has left two people seriously injured and shaken a community that thought the area was safe.<\/p>\n
According to the Jacksonville Sheriff\u2019s Office, a smoke shop clerk in his early 20s confronted someone suspected of stealing in the parking lot outside the store on Shirley Avenue. Police said that\u2019s when a second man pulled a gun and opened fire.<\/p>\n
Police said there was an exchange of gunfire, and the smoke shop clerk was shot in the chest and taken to a local hospital with life-threatening injuries. Authorities said another man, also in his early 20s, was shot in the abdomen and remains in critical condition.<\/p>\n
Roni Masabani, a coworker of the injured clerk, said the two were close and that the shooting left him worried.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just hope he, like, makes it through because he\u2019s in a life-threatening situation, my boy Matt,\u201d Masabani said.<\/p>\n
The smoke shop opened just six months ago, and Masabani said the shooting has already made customers hesitant to enter, even though the incident occurred in the parking lot.<\/p>\n
“We have nothing to rob in here. We have nothing but vapes. So nothing worth losing your life.”<\/p>\n
The plaza is home to family-oriented businesses, including a gymnastics studio, karate school, doggy daycare, and a church. Residents and business owners said they are still shocked.<\/p>\n
Ronni Monday, a longtime resident, said he regularly visits the area and was stunned by the violence.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was sad about it. You know hope somebody, you know hope they live, and you know hope they’re all right. And it was just a shock to me, because I\u2019ve been on this side of town for that long, and they heard nothing or seen nothing,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Mark Costley, a karate instructor who moved his business to the plaza last year, echoed the sentiment.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m extremely surprised. Actually, we don\u2019t have anything like that. A lot of businesses have been around here, and they\u2019ve never had any problems,\u201d Costley said.<\/p>\n
Police said the investigation is ongoing, and several people were detained for questioning. No arrests were immediately announced Monday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A smoke shop employee was seriously injured while confronting a suspected thief outside of the store, according to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":141512,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[116,118,117],"class_list":{"0":"post-141511","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jacksonville","8":"tag-jacksonville","9":"tag-jacksonville-headlines","10":"tag-jacksonville-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141511","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=141511"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141511\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/141512"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=141511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=141511"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=141511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}