{"id":158448,"date":"2026-02-17T15:05:30","date_gmt":"2026-02-17T15:05:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/158448\/"},"modified":"2026-02-17T15:05:30","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T15:05:30","slug":"city-leaders-community-react-to-chaos-outside-avenues-mall-over-weekend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/158448\/","title":{"rendered":"City leaders, community react to chaos outside Avenues Mall over weekend"},"content":{"rendered":"

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 Chaos ensued Saturday outside the Avenues Mall after a firearm was discharged in the parking lot and hit a vehicle<\/a>.<\/p>\n

No one was hurt, but large crowds scattered, and police were seen trying to corral the frenzied scene.<\/p>\n

The Jacksonville Sheriff\u2019s Office detained one person, and investigators are still looking for the person who fired the weapon.<\/p>\n

Since the incident, Jacksonville City Councilmember Raul Arias, who represents the district where the Avenues Mall is located, told News4JAX that he wants the city and JSO to work with parents to curb the issues that led to Saturday\u2019s bedlam.<\/p>\n

A scene that was similar to previous incidents at the Orange Park Mall involving large crowds of teenagers drawing police attention because of their behavior.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is something they\u2019ve been monitoring for quite a while now,\u201d Arias said. \u201cThis is not new to them. It\u2019s just they\u2019re constantly shifting from different locations, and that\u2019s the biggest thing right now with the Sheriff\u2019s Office that they\u2019re trying to figure out, \u2018OK, they\u2019re going to be here,\u2019 we need police presence, but they move them around.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mayor Donna Deegan shared a brief statement with News4JAX about Saturday\u2019s incident, saying that she is \u201cgrateful that no one was injured and for the fast response by JSO.\u201d<\/p>\n

Saturday\u2019s incident spread well beyond the property lines of the mall. <\/p>\n

News4JAX also spoke with an employee of the nearby Target store, which is a few blocks away.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was actually pretty intimidating because I was standing right by the entrance,\u201d said Michael Martinda. \u201cThey\u2019re all wearing dark colored clothing. I\u2019m hearing they\u2019re running across Southside (Boulevard). Not only a danger to them but a danger to drivers.\u201d<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for The Avenues shared the following statement with News4JAX about Saturday\u2019s incident:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe behavior during Saturday night\u2019s incident is not tolerated at our property. We are grateful for law enforcement\u2019s swift response and will continue to work with them and our security team to deploy our strong safety and security program.\u201d<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 Chaos ensued Saturday outside the Avenues Mall after a firearm was discharged in the parking…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":158449,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[65582,116,118,117],"class_list":{"0":"post-158448","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jacksonville","8":"tag-avenues-mall","9":"tag-jacksonville","10":"tag-jacksonville-headlines","11":"tag-jacksonville-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158448","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=158448"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158448\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/158449"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=158448"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=158448"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=158448"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}