officers responded<\/a> around 9 p.m. to the 1700 block of St. Johns Bluff Road South after reports of a shooting. When they arrived, they found a man suffering from a gunshot wound to the abdomen. He was taken to the hospital and is expected to be okay.<\/p>\nInvestigators say the shooting stemmed from a hit-and-run crash. Police say the victim followed the suspect after the crash. At some point, the suspect stopped, opened fire on the victim\u2019s car, and then fled the area.<\/p>\n
The incident has left nearby business owners concerned about safety.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m kind of shocked a little bit, but then part of me is not because probably in the last 6 to 8 months I\u2019ve seen and heard about so many incidents in this area,\u201d said Anthony Delacruz, owner of Hairz Looking At You Inc.<\/p>\n
Delacruz has owned his salon on St. Johns Bluff Road for 25 years and says incidents like this have become more common. He worries about how ongoing violence could impact his clients.<\/p>\n
“I am concerned, but I don\u2019t want my clients to be,” he says. “I want the best for my clients, I don\u2019t want them to be like ‘Oh, I\u2019m not going over there now cause that stuff happens over there’.”<\/p>\n
While Delacruz says he understands why someone might want to follow a driver after a hit-and-run, he acknowledges the risks.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can actually understand why the guy went after the other guy because he\u2019s thinking that he has to pay for it,” Delacruz says. “If I didn’t have that guy’s information, I would probably go after him too.”<\/p>\n
First Coast News crime and safety expert Ken Jefferson says following another driver can quickly turn dangerous.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is very dangerous for you to follow a suspect. If you\u2019re gonna follow them, do it at a safe distance \u2014 far enough where you can get a tag number or vehicle description and give it all to the police,” Jefferson states. “Don\u2019t try to take matters into your own hands because you are diving into the unknown.”<\/p>\n
Anyone with information on the incident is asked to call JSO’s non-emergency number at 904-630-0500. To provide information anonymously, contact Crime Stoppers at 1-866-845-TIPS.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Sandalwood hit-and-run escalated into a shooting, sparking safety concerns among local business owners. The Jacksonville Sheriff\u2019s Office…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":144001,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[116,118,117],"class_list":{"0":"post-144000","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\/144000","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=144000"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144000\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/144001"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=144000"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=144000"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=144000"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}