JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 Chaos broke out across Jacksonville\u2019s Southside Friday evening, beginning at The Avenues Mall and later spilling over to Urban Air Trampoline and Adventure Park, prompting a heavy police response and alarming shoppers.<\/p>\n
According to JSO, around 5 p.m. an off-duty lieutenant at The Avenues Mall saw a large group of teenagers gathered in the parking lot. A short time later, shots were fired, and the teens ran from the area. Officers quickly arrived and searched for suspects, victims, and witnesses. So far, no one has been found hurt, and no one has reported being shot. Police did find one car that was hit by gunfire, but no one was inside.<\/p>\n
Witnesses say the situation escalated quickly. <\/p>\n
Dozens of teens were seen running while more than 50 police cars responded to reports of large crowds gathering at Urban Air. A police helicopter circled overhead as sirens filled the area.<\/p>\n
>>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <<<<\/a><\/p>\n Two teenagers, Amani Smith and Danasia Henry, told Action News Jax the gathering was not random but planned in advance.<\/p>\n \u201cThis has been planned for like a whole month. They went into planning. They do this every time in downtown and everywhere,\u201d Smith and Henry said.<\/p>\n The teens said tensions rose when crowds tried to enter the trampoline park all at once.<\/p>\n \u201cEverybody was trying to get in at once and the workers were not about to let that happen and so they were trying to get people out and that\u2019s when police were called,\u201d Smith and Henry said.<\/p>\n They also said the event was promoted on social media.<\/p>\n \u201cYes it was a flyer,\u201d said Smith and Henry.<\/p>\n As the night unfolded, they described scenes of violence and confusion.<\/p>\n \u201cShooting, fights, and teens getting ran over by police cars. No this is ridiculous. It\u2019s not Jacksonville,\u201d Smith and Henry said.<\/p>\n [DOWNLOAD: Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks<\/a>]<\/p>\n Shoppers in the area said they were shaken by what they witnessed.<\/p>\n \u201cI hope everybody is safe. I hope nobody is hurt,\u201d Johnson, a local shopper, said.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m not gonna lie. I\u2019m really really am surprised that this is happening. I\u2019ve never seen something like this before,\u201d Maui, who was also at the mall, said.<\/p>\n Police continue investigating what led to the reported shooting at The Avenues Mall and the disturbance at Urban Air. <\/p>\n Teenagers who spoke with Action News Jax maintain the event was a planned \u201cteen takeover.\u201d<\/p>\n [SIGN UP: Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter<\/a>] <\/p>\n Click here<\/a> to download the free Action News Jax news and weather apps, click here<\/a> to download the Action News Jax Now app for your smart TV and click here<\/a> to stream Action News Jax live.<\/p>\n Action News Jax Top Stories<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 Chaos broke out across Jacksonville\u2019s Southside Friday evening, beginning at The Avenues Mall and later…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":156120,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[116,118,117,634],"class_list":{"0":"post-156119","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","11":"tag-local"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156119","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=156119"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156119\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/156120"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=156119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=156119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=156119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}