One post read<\/a>: <\/p>\nPSA: Unauthorized and Unpermitted Events are AGAINST THE LAW. <\/p>\n
Unauthorized events include any event or gatherings that are publicly promoted and have not successfully completed the Special Events application process. This includes promoting \u201cPOP-UP TAKEOVER\u201d events on Instagram, SnapChat, Facebook, etc.<\/p>\n
Unauthorized or unpermitted events held on City property will be subject to law enforcement action as authorized by Florida Statutes, including but not limited, to \u00a7\u00a7316.1891 and 877.03, F.S. <\/p>\n
Promoters will be subject to both criminal and civil liabilities.<\/p>\n
Attendees breaking the law will be arrested.<\/p>\n
Zero Tolerance. No warnings. No do-overs. No second chances. Just some handcuffs and a trip to jail.<\/p>\n
A day later, JBPD shared another post with an example of a situation during a takeover in New York.<\/p>\n
Despite their warnings, JBPD said, the group still showed up,<\/p>\n
JBPD Police Chief Gene Paul Smith said in a news release that his department used the same tactics for Saturday\u2019s event that they used to prevent similar events last year.<\/p>\n
\u201cLast year, at least five takeovers were prevented from gaining traction and occurring,\u201d Smith wrote. <\/p>\n
Despite their preparation, Saturday\u2019s event ended in violence.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am extremely proud of the response from officers on scene that night; they acted with courage and determination in response to the violence,\u201d Smith wrote. \u201cI made it clear to City officials that our efforts would never guarantee an incident such as this would not occur, but it occurred despite our best efforts.\u201d<\/p>\n
The incident happened in the area of Beach Boulevard and Third Street, not far from the Seawalk Music Festival, but Jacksonville Beach Mayor Christine Hoffman made it clear the \u201ctakeover\u201d was separate from the festival.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe shootings had absolutely nothing to do with the Seawalk Music Festival that was going on. We have festivals and large events out there frequently. It was a really nice, warm, almost felt like a summer day out there, so we were really, really busy out at the beach,\u201d Hoffman said during an interview with anchor Jennifer Waugh on her 10 a.m. News4JAX+ streaming show.<\/p>\n
Hoffman also brought up the Avenues Mall event the week before, saying it\u2019s clear to Jacksonville Beach locals that the trouble started elsewhere.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously, nobody wants this in their community, but they feel very much that this is kind of an outside problem coming in, not a fundamental problem with Jacksonville Beach,\u201d Hoffman said. <\/p>\n
The violence left crowds nearby frightened.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe made everybody get behind the bars,\u201d said one local employee, who asked not to be identified. \u201cWe shut down. We did. We shut down two hours early. This is a huge night, but you know, I mean, there\u2019s things that are more important than keeping a business open. Everybody needs to be safe.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hoffman said that despite Saturday\u2019s incident, Jacksonville Beach is expecting large crowds as we head into spring and summer, and that the police department is prepared to keep them safe.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that some of the moves that we\u2019ve made with our police department in the past few years, particularly since the incident of St. Patrick\u2019s Day a few years ago, making sure we have the tools, time and the training for our officers, that we have a fully staffed complement of officers,\u201d Hoffman said. \u201cBut we\u2019ve also done some technology improvements, including a drone program, license plate readers.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hoffman said a camera system throughout town helps officers who can only be in one place at a time.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut when you can add in the cameras and the drones, et cetera, that\u2019s going to help us through the busy season, regardless of what the event is and what\u2019s going on downtown,\u201d Hoffman said.<\/p>\n
No arrests have been announced in Saturday\u2019s shooting.<\/p>\n
Watch Saturday\u2019s full news conference below:<\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE BEACH, Fla. \u2013 Jacksonville Beach police have confirmed that they believe a \u201ctakeover\u201d event at the beaches…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":165925,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[65582,265,116,2130,41130,118,117,78492],"class_list":{"0":"post-165924","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jacksonville","8":"tag-avenues-mall","9":"tag-crime","10":"tag-jacksonville","11":"tag-jacksonville-beach","12":"tag-jacksonville-beach-police-department","13":"tag-jacksonville-headlines","14":"tag-jacksonville-news","15":"tag-teen-takeover"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165924","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=165924"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165924\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/165925"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=165924"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=165924"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=165924"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}