{"id":186630,"date":"2026-03-11T02:11:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-11T02:11:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/186630\/"},"modified":"2026-03-11T02:11:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-11T02:11:09","slug":"charges-dropped-for-jfrd-employees-who-were-accused-of-engaging-in-prank-war-involving-paintballs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/186630\/","title":{"rendered":"Charges dropped for JFRD employees who were accused of engaging in \u2018prank war\u2019 involving paintballs"},"content":{"rendered":"

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 Three employees with Jacksonville Fire and Rescue accused of engaging in a \u201cprank war\u201d have had their future court dates canceled and are being referred to a misdemeanor pre-trial intervention program, according to court records reviewed by News4JAX.<\/p>\n

Records also show that a fourth employee, who was accused of being involved with the antics, has had their charges dropped after completing the PTI program. <\/p>\n

On Jan. 23, the Jacksonville Sheriff\u2019s Office said it had arrested four firefighters with the Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department<\/a> (JFRD) who were accused of targeting multiple vehicles, including a JSO patrol car, with paintballs. <\/p>\n

Investigators said the incidents seemed to stem from an ongoing \u201cprank war\u201d that was occurring between fire stations, and the four firefighters involved were reassigned to administrative duties pending the outcome of an internal investigation by JFRD. <\/p>\n

The four firefighters also faced misdemeanor criminal mischief charges, police said. <\/p>\n

On Dec. 29, a police officer was located in the LaVilla neighborhood when he noticed multiple green paint splatters on his marked patrol vehicle. Police said that a civilian reported that their vehicle was also struck similarly. <\/p>\n

JSO said that when officers responded, they discovered more green paint splatters on an I-95 traffic sign, a \u201cone-way\u201d sign, a dumpster, and an abandoned structure.<\/p>\n

Officers also said they observed firefighters quickly entering a nearby fire station and closing the bay doors. <\/p>\n

Further investigative efforts led police to find 14 red and green paintballs on the roof of a nearby fire station, along with some used paintball shells in the station\u2019s driveway.<\/p>\n

Police later identified the four firefighters believed to be responsible for the incident as: <\/p>\n

Landon T. Simmons, 30, engineer<\/p>\n

Wesley P. Parker, 32, engineer<\/p>\n

Tristen C. Harrison, 25, engineer <\/p>\n

Colby B. Lesage, 23, firefighter<\/p>\n

\u201cJSO maintains a strong public safety partnership with the Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department. This incident does not change our commitment to protecting the citizens and visitors of Jacksonville,\u201d JSO said on social media. <\/p>\n

News4JAX crews noted visible signs of the \u201cprank war\u201d outside the LaVilla station, including paint splatters on signs and buildings. <\/p>\n

Paintball splatters seen on a JFRD fire station in LaVilla (Copyright 2025 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.)Paint splatters observed on the JFRD fire station in LaVilla (Copyright 2025 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.)<\/p>\n

The paintball gun used reportedly came from a Christmas \u201cWhite Elephant\u201d gift exchange.<\/p>\n

According to the arrest reports, the firefighters initially used the paintball gun to shoot signs, but when it stopped working, they began throwing paintballs at each other.<\/p>\n

At the time, JSO said Sheriff T.K. Waters and JFRD Chief Percy Golden Jr. had addressed the matter.<\/p>\n

Additionally, JFRD issued a statement saying it was made aware of the allegations by JSO on Dec. 29, 2025, and has fully cooperated with the investigation, emphasizing that the incident would have no future impact on public safety or JFRD operations.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 Three employees with Jacksonville Fire and Rescue accused of engaging in a \u201cprank war\u201d have…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":186631,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[116,118,117,12814,1872],"class_list":["post-186630","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news","tag-jfrd","tag-jso"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186630","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=186630"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186630\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/186631"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=186630"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=186630"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=186630"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}