{"id":213795,"date":"2026-03-31T23:49:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-31T23:49:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/213795\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T23:49:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T23:49:08","slug":"littering-of-sprite-bottle-led-to-discovery-of-illegally-possessed-gun-at-jax-beach-senior-skip-day-event-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/213795\/","title":{"rendered":"Littering of Sprite bottle led to discovery of illegally possessed gun at Jax Beach \u2018Senior Skip Day\u2019 event: report"},"content":{"rendered":"

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 Among the 13 arrests that were made at a recent \u201cSenior Skip Day\u201d event at Jacksonville Beach<\/a>, one of them involved an 18-year-old whose littering of a Sprite bottle led to the discovery of an illegally possessed \u201cDraco-style pistol\u201d in his backpack.<\/p>\n

According to arrest reports, the 18-year-old, a Riverside High School student, threw the soda bottle on the ground in front of Sneakers Bar & Grill in Jacksonville Beach around 3 p.m. on Friday. <\/p>\n

Police say they noticed the suspect had a backpack and asked him what was inside, to which he replied, \u201cnormal beach things.\u201d <\/p>\n

The arrest report notes that the arresting officer noticed that the bottom of the backpack \u201ccame to a point,\u201d and after the 18-year-old unzipped the main compartment, the pistol was seen and removed from the bag.<\/p>\n

The suspect was subsequently taken to jail. <\/p>\n

On Monday, JSO said<\/a> it made 13 arrests, seized over 100 grams of marijuana, and recovered nine guns at a \u201cSenior Skip Day\u201d event in Jacksonville Beach. <\/p>\n

The agency noted in its social media post that its officers were made aware of the event by the Jacksonville Beach Police Department, which learned of the event through \u201conline chatter\u201d that appeared similar to recent teen takeovers in the area. <\/p>\n

The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office released a photo of a firearm it says officers seized during a ‘Senior Skip Day’ event in Jacksonville Beach. (Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office)<\/p>\n

Eight people face felony charges following the arrests, and five more were arrested for misdemeanors, JSO said. <\/p>\n

RELATED: \u2018Do you know where your kids are?\u2019: JSO warns parents as teen \u2018takeover\u2019 events raise concerns<\/a> | JSO says Saturday night gathering of 600 to 700 young people near Friendship Fountain was part of \u2018planned takeover\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cOur teams took a proactive approach to keep everyone safe, looking for suspicious and dangerous behavior,\u201d the agency wrote on social media. \u201cPlease enjoy our beaches and public spaces, but don\u2019t bring bad behavior, illegal weapons, or drugs.\u201d<\/p>\n

JSO says 9 firearms were seized as officers were deployed to monitor a ‘Senior Skip Day’ event in Jacksonville Beach. (Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office)<\/p>\n

The Jacksonville Beach Police Department also took to social media<\/a> to share its gratitude for the work done by JSO and other law enforcement agencies to break up the event and keep the community safe. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe appreciate their continued support\u2014not just for this event, but throughout the past several weeks as we\u2019ve worked together to address takeover activity and keep our community safe,\u201d Jacksonville Beach police said. \u201cWe\u2019re committed to keeping Jacksonville Beach safe\u2014and that takes all of us working together.\u201d<\/p>\n

The arrests come as police in our coverage area actively work to prevent teen takeover-style events, such as the one that recently occurred at Blue Cypress Park in Arlington involving over 200 teens<\/a>, or the one in Jacksonville Beach in February that led to five teens being hit by gunfire. <\/a><\/p>\n

A teen takeover<\/a> is a large, loosely organized gathering of juveniles that\u2019s typically promoted on social media and can quickly overwhelm the area where it happens, which can include places like a mall parking lot, a popular park, or even a busy shopping corridor.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 Among the 13 arrests that were made at a recent \u201cSenior Skip Day\u201d event at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":213796,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[1039,116,2130,118,117,1872,78492],"class_list":["post-213795","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-duval-county","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-beach","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news","tag-jso","tag-teen-takeover"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213795","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=213795"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213795\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/213796"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=213795"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=213795"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=213795"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}