A\u2019mahri died in one of Florida\u2019s most violent places for children: Jacksonville. This city has three ZIP codes that rank among the 10 worst in the state for firearm injuries involving children.<\/p>\n
Every year, hundreds of children are hospitalized in Florida with gunshot wounds, and overwhelmingly, they come from a tiny number of ZIP codes, an exclusive analysis of hospital data by KFF Health News and The Trace found.<\/p>\n
Hospital billing data obtained from the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration shows that from 2018 to 2024 more than 4,000 children 17 or younger were hospitalized for firearm injuries \u2014 a rate of about 1.5 a day.<\/p>\n
The newsrooms gathered data<\/a> that the state\u2019s hospitals use to collect payments from insurance companies or the government. The information does not identify patients but includes details about where they lived and their age, race, and other demographics.<\/p>\n The number of children killed in Jacksonville has grown so large that a nonprofit<\/a>, Families of Slain Children, built a \u201cWall of Compassion\u201d memorial listing hundreds of people killed by gunfire in the city. Memorial organizers have stood up a second wall nearby that is filling with names.<\/p>\n The numbers reflect how Florida\u2019s long history of racial discrimination and permissive gun laws undermine public health, said researchers, public officials, community activists, and grieving parents.<\/p>\n Jacksonville kids were shot most often in racially segregated neighborhoods \u2014 a legacy from the early 20th century of state-sanctioned discrimination in housing, banking, and investment. These areas today are plagued by pollution from defunct city-run trash incinerators, garbage-strewn lots, dilapidated housing, poverty, and other problems that local leaders have been promising to fix for more than 50 years.<\/p>\n Nearly all the Florida ZIP codes with the highest rates of firearm injuries for children have large Black or Latino populations.<\/p>\n Perhaps nowhere is the toll of gun violence more evident than at UF Health Jacksonville, a safety net hospital and the only Level I trauma center in northeastern Florida.<\/p>\n As chief of acute care surgery, Firas Madbak<\/a> sees firsthand the toll exacted by guns.<\/p>\n \u201cYou see it day in and day out,\u201d Madbak said. \u201cI\u2019m working tonight, and I suspect I\u2019ll see a couple victims.\u201d<\/p>\n Jeffrey Goldhagen<\/a>, a UF Health pediatrician and former health director for Duval County, which includes Jacksonville, said state and local leaders have failed to address what he called the \u201croot causes\u201d of preventable firearm injuries and deaths, such as poverty, lack of opportunity, and neglect.<\/p>\n \u201cThe bottom line is nobody gives a flying f— about these young men,\u201d Goldhagen said.<\/p>\n Gun violence victims and their families face increased risk<\/a> of depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, and other mental health problems.<\/p>\n Throughout U.S. history, local governments have pushed industrial plants, oil refineries<\/a>, and highways through Black neighborhoods even as research<\/a> linked<\/a> them<\/a> to increased risks of cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, cancer, preterm births, and gun violence.<\/p>\n But the Florida Department of Health does not focus on gun violence as a public health threat, Goldhagen said, despite its being the nation\u2019s leading cause of death<\/a> for children and teens.<\/p>\n The State Health Improvement Plan<\/a>, a set of goals developed by the health department and an advisory committee, does not mention guns, the toll they take on children, or efforts to reduce firearm deaths and injuries to young people.<\/p>\n Instead, its goals include preventing or reducing sudden unexpected infant deaths and youth drownings, emergency room visits for motor vehicle crashes, and hospitalizations for traumatic brain injuries.<\/p>\n And yet, no one with the authority to address this public health crisis would agree to talk to KFF Health News about gun violence and its toll on Jacksonville\u2019s children \u2014 not the Florida health department, Gov. Ron DeSantis, Mayor Donna Deegan, or 18 of 19 members of the Jacksonville City Council.<\/p>\n Only Council member Jimmy Peluso responded. Peluso said the city has long ignored the needs of neighborhoods with high rates of firearm injuries among children.<\/p>\n \u201cA lot of these neighborhoods have just felt like the wealth has left them,\u201d he said, \u201cand the city didn\u2019t come in to put in the amount of work they needed to.\u201d<\/p>\n DeSantis, a Republican, in public comments has called for few limits on how people purchase or carry firearms. He signed a bill<\/a> to allow Floridians to carry concealed weapons without a permit.<\/p>\n When then-U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy declared firearm violence a public health crisis in 2024, DeSantis called the advisory an \u201cunconstitutional power-grab<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n DeSantis said Florida would not follow the advisory, which recommended policies including universal background checks for gun purchases and requirements for secure storage.<\/p>\n DeSantis spokesperson Molly Best declined an interview request and to answer questions about the governor\u2019s gun policies.<\/p>\n \u201cThere isn\u2019t an agenda to end gun violence in the state of Florida,\u201d said Jean Francis, a former pediatric nurse who leads the Jacksonville chapter of Moms Demand Action, part of a nonprofit that advocates for stronger firearm laws.<\/p>\n Research has linked increases in pediatric gun deaths from 2011 to 2023 to state-level gun policies.<\/p>\n States with permissive gun policies, such as \u201cstand your ground\u201d and open carry laws, reported higher rates of firearm deaths among children than states with strict regulations, such as weapon and age restrictions, according to a study in JAMA Pediatrics<\/a>.<\/p>\n The study ranked Florida among a group of 30 states with the most permissive gun policies. Four states with comparatively strict gun laws \u2014 California, Maryland, New York, and Rhode Island \u2014 saw a decrease in pediatric gun deaths over the same time period.<\/p>\n Florida law<\/a> prevents cities and counties from enacting stricter gun safety measures.<\/p>\n Research shows<\/a> kids in disadvantaged neighborhoods are up to 20 times more likely to suffer firearm injuries than their peers in the most advantaged areas.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s disheartening,\u201d Madbak said. UF Health Jacksonville treated 255 patients for gunshot wounds in 2024, including 32 who were 17 or younger, he said.<\/p>\n In 2025, the hospital treated 269 patients for firearm injuries, including 22 who were under 18, according to Dan Leveton, a hospital spokesperson. As of Aug. 19, the hospital has treated 137 patients for gunshot wounds this year, including 18 who were 17 or younger.<\/p>\n Preventing gun violence \u201cshouldn\u2019t be a political issue, even though it is,\u201d Madbak said, adding that there is a lot of room for more effective advocacy for violence prevention.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s really an American issue,\u201d Madbak said, \u201cand our state has been impacted tremendously by this kind of violence.\u201d<\/p>\n The Pain of Mothers, Grandmothers, and Aunts<\/p>\n In Orlando, one ZIP code \u2014 32805 \u2014 had the state\u2019s highest rate of children under 18 hospitalized for a gunshot wound from 2018 through 2024, with a total of 25 children, or 125.8 per 100,000.<\/p>\n On New Year\u2019s Day 2018, Bryce Williams, 17, was shot in a neighborhood park<\/a> in Casselberry, an Orlando suburb. He was found dead after crashing his blue Kia into a home near the park.<\/p>\n Williams\u2019 death devastated his family, his grandmother Kim Crow told WFTV in Orlando.<\/p>\n \u201cFirst off, you can\u2019t believe that someone is taken from you so violently,\u201d Crow said. \u201cIt\u2019s heartbreaking.\u201d<\/p>\n In April, Daesean Moctezuma Orland, 18, was fatally shot<\/a> while attending a house party outside Orlando. Two others wounded in the shooting were taken to the hospital. Police arrested a 16-year-old boy about a month after the shooting and charged him with Moctezuma Orland\u2019s death.<\/p>\n Moctezuma Orland\u2019s grandmother Lizzy Moctezuma told WFTV that a friend of her grandson\u2019s called her and daughter Noemi Moctezuma to tell them that he had been shot. The women drove to four hospitals, including one in Tampa, searching for him.<\/p>\n \u201cMy every day is crumbled,\u201d Lizzy Moctezuma said. \u201cIt\u2019s hard to work. You sit there and you watch the news. You\u2019re like, oh my God, there goes another kid getting killed by gun violence.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a hole in my chest, a hole in my mind,\u201d Noemi Moctezuma said. \u201cIt\u2019s like the biggest void that you could ever possibly imagine, that not even the happiest moments can fill a void like that.\u201d<\/p>\n Jacksonville, a city of about 1 million, is particularly treacherous for children living in areas north and west of downtown.<\/p>\n The victims include a 7-year-old boy<\/a> gunned down while playing in front of a house, a 13-year-old boy<\/a> fatally wounded coming home from a football tryout, and a 5-year-old girl<\/a> killed by a stray bullet as she sat in a parked car.<\/p>\n Advocates for victims said that gun violence has ripped any sense of normalcy from families and entire neighborhoods. Grieving mothers fear fireworks and other loud noises that sound like gunshots. Grappling with their own emotions, they said, they sometimes struggle to help their surviving children cope with the loss.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you hear their stories, you think, \u2018This is the worst thing I have ever heard,\u2019\u201d Francis said, \u201cuntil you hear the next one.\u201d<\/p>\n Hours after graduating from Jacksonville\u2019s Raines High School in May 2022, Rashaud Fields<\/a>, 18, was shot and killed while arriving at a friend\u2019s celebration. Fields was walking into the party when a car pulled up and opened fire, his mother, Yvonne Fields, told Action News Jax in an interview.<\/p>\n A defensive lineman on his high school football team, Fields had been offered a full scholarship to play for Keiser University in West Palm Beach. His parents were planning a party for the following day to celebrate his graduation<\/p>\n \u201cEverybody loved him,\u201d Yvonne Fields said of her youngest son, calling him \u201cthe life of the party.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cRashaud loved to dance. He was a joke teller. He was funny,\u201d Fields said.<\/p>\n At the time, Rashaud Fields was at least the ninth 17- to 19-year-old homicide victim in the city that year, according to the Florida Times-Union<\/a>, the local newspaper. Yvonne Fields said she has kept her son\u2019s room exactly as he left it the day he was killed. She smells his shirt every day.<\/p>\n \u201cI know he\u2019s not coming back,\u201d she said, \u201cbut I can feel the spirit.\u201d<\/p>\n Two days after celebrating his 18th birthday, Maurice Hobbs was fatally shot in January 2017 as he waited for his mother to pick him up.<\/p>\n \u201cI was not even a block away,\u201d Latasha Hobbs said to Action News Jax.<\/p>\n A singer, rapper, and poet, Maurice Hobbs wanted to perform and launch a clothing line. He dreamt of making enough money to give homes to everyone in his family so they could all live on the same street.<\/p>\n His mom recalled celebrating his birthday with cake and dancing in the kitchen and his reaction to turning 18.<\/p>\n \u201cHe was like, \u2018Oh my God, Mom, I made it to 18,\u2019\u201d Latasha Hobbs said. \u201cSo it\u2019s hard to swallow knowing that my baby didn\u2019t make it to 19. It\u2019s not fair. My baby deserves to be here.\u201d<\/p>\n Pamela Howard has struggled for nearly two decades with the pain of the killing of her son Derrell Baker at age 17.<\/p>\n Howard, a mother of five, called her son energetic and an anchor for his younger siblings. Baker excelled at football, she said, and was on track to graduate high school despite having severe attention-deficit\/hyperactivity disorder.<\/p>\n Someone shot Baker in September 2008 as he walked to school. A passerby found him by the road.<\/p>\n Howard said she thought Baker was at school and later football practice. The family learned something might be wrong only when a sibling heard that Baker had been shot.<\/p>\n Howard called area hospitals in search of her son. By the time she found him at UF Health Jacksonville, it was too late, she said: He had died hours earlier.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t remember anything after they told me\u201d he was dead, Howard said. \u201cMy friends say they just heard me scream.\u201d<\/p>\n For the mothers Fields, Hobbs, and Howard, the sudden, unexpected death of their children cut deep. The lack of closure is painful. Police have not made an arrest in any of the cases.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I get justice,\u201d Yvonne Fields said, \u201cmaybe I\u2019ll be a little at peace.\u201d<\/p>\n Leading Cause of Death<\/p>\n Michael Nance<\/a>, chief of pediatric surgery and trauma at Children\u2019s Hospital of Philadelphia, said there has to be an appetite in state capitals to regulate firearms and protect children from gun violence.<\/p>\n Nance co-authored a research letter<\/a> in JAMA Pediatrics finding that the number of states where guns were the leading cause of death for children and teens increased from zero over the period 2004 to 2008 to 24 from 2019 to 2023.<\/p>\n Motor vehicle deaths among children, once the leading cause of death in that group, have declined primarily because of safety interventions undertaken by governments and car manufacturers, he said, from seat belt laws and speed limits to air bags and antilock brakes.<\/p>\n \u201cThat progress has been pretty universal across the U.S.,\u201d he said, \u201cbut firearm stuff is just all over the map.\u201d<\/p>\n Guns don\u2019t have federal safety standards, Nance noted. They aren\u2019t regulated by the Consumer Product Safety Commission, a federal agency that protects the public from dangerous products, and they can\u2019t be recalled the way unsafe toys or cars can be.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve really done almost nothing to change the trajectory of firearm injuries in kids,\u201d Nance said.<\/p>\n Goldhagen, the UF Health pediatrician, said Jacksonville leaders tried to address gun violence through the Jacksonville Journey, an initiative launched in 2008 \u2014 when Duval County was the murder capital of Florida \u2014 under former Mayor John Peyton.<\/p>\n The program for children at risk of violence provided mentorship, summer camps, job training, and nonpolice strategies such as neighborhood beautification projects and community center programs. The Journey also partnered with the Jacksonville Sheriff\u2019s Office on gang intervention focused on young people.<\/p>\n Officials credited the effort with a nearly 40% reduction in homicides in Duval County in its first four years.<\/p>\n After Peyton left office in 2011, program spending of about $15 million was slashed to $8.6 million in 2012 and about $2.3 million in 2014. The scaled-back program was eventually combined with another children\u2019s initiative to form the Kids Hope Alliance<\/a>, which uses city, state, and federal grants to fund youth services and intervention programs.<\/p>\n Duval County is the only large county in Florida that does not have a child services tax dedicated to programs for children, including efforts to reduce youth crime.<\/p>\n City leaders believe \u201cpublic safety is about fire and police, but not social services,\u201d said Vicki Waytowich, executive director of the Partnership for Child Health<\/a>, a nonprofit funded through grants and contracts that provides health and juvenile justice services for children and families in Jacksonville.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is absolutely zero political will to do anything that remotely resembles a child services tax,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n In 2024, city leaders halted spending<\/a> on a gun violence prevention program called Cure Violence, which tried to squash beefs between youths before they escalated to shootings. A city Office of Inspector General report alleged the program lacked oversight<\/a> and sound financial practices.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have a public health system that doesn\u2019t focus on this as a public health or population health issue,\u201d Goldhagen said.<\/p>\n Waytowich said crime is a symptom of much deeper problems on the north side of Jacksonville, from neighborhood decay to generational trauma and lack of job opportunities.<\/p>\n \u201cWe don\u2019t really have the funds to address the root causes,\u201d she said. \u201cWhat we\u2019re doing is slapping a band-aid on things.\u201d<\/p>\n Unlike in Mandarin, a predominantly white neighborhood on the south side of Jacksonville with easy access to about seven grocery stores, children of the city\u2019s north side have poor nutrition, Waytowich said, and many walk more than a mile to get to school.<\/p>\n \u201cWe can see that kids don\u2019t have hope,\u201d Waytowich said. \u201cWhen kids believe they\u2019re going to die at 21, then what\u2019s the use of goal-setting and r\u00e9sum\u00e9-building workshops?\u201d<\/p>\n In 2025, Jacksonville Mayor Deegan launched a program to address gun violence called Journey Forward<\/a>.<\/p>\n But like its predecessor, Journey Forward does not have a dedicated, ongoing source of funding.<\/p>\n Hard Memory<\/p>\n On March 22, Ladonna Johnson said, she broke up with Dodson because she saw that he was sharing location information with other women on his cellphone.<\/p>\n She said she went into a bedroom where A\u2019mahri and his sister were watching television and put her son on her lap. Dodson followed Johnson into the room, she said, then went into a closet and retrieved the gun.<\/p>\n \u201cHe just kept asking me, \u2018What are we doing?\u2019\u201d Johnson said.<\/p>\n Moments later, Johnson said, she heard a loud bang. Her daughter started to cry.<\/p>\n They will both need therapy, she said. She is dedicated to preserving A\u2019mahri\u2019s memory: \u201cI want people to know how adorable and sweet my son was.\u201d<\/p>\n Still, she said, \u201cI feel like I will never be OK.\u201d<\/p>\n Methodology<\/p>\n To find that more than 4,000 children under 18 had been treated in Florida hospitals for gunshot wounds from 2018 to 2024, The Trace and KFF Health News analyzed two datasets obtained from the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration via a data request:<\/p>\n In the emergency department file, which contained records of 67,565,314 ER visits that did not result in an inpatient admission, we identified 37,415 gunshot wound cases using the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention\u2019s ICD injury code matrix<\/a>.In the inpatient file, which contained records of 21,857,664 hospital visits in which patients were admitted, we identified 28,149 gunshot wound cases using the CDC definition.<\/p>\n We defined children as 17 and under and filtered the patient age column to find that 2,340 children had been treated in ERs and 1,684 admitted to hospitals with gunshot wounds. To avoid double-counting, we excluded patients from the emergency department file whose records indicated that they were transferred to a different inpatient facility.<\/p>\n Demographic breakdowns were generated using the race and ethnicity columns in the datasets.<\/p>\n To examine the geographic distribution of the burden of gun violence, we grouped child gunshot wound victims by the ZIP code provided. Importantly, this ZIP code is the location not of the shooting but of the child\u2019s residence. A small number of children in the data had out-of-state ZIP codes, or placeholder ZIP codes indicating they were homeless or from a foreign country. These children are included in statewide totals as children treated in Florida hospitals but not in ZIP-level results.<\/p>\n This data does not include children who were shot but died at the scene or before reaching the hospital or who never received medical treatment.<\/p>\n KFF Health News data editor Holly K. Hacker contributed to this report.<\/p>\n This report was produced by KFF Health News, The Trace, Action News Jax in Jacksonville, and WFTV in Orlando.<\/p>\n KFF Health News<\/a> is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF<\/a> \u2014 the independent source for health policy research, polling, and journalism.<\/p>\n Click here<\/a> to download our free news, weather and smart TV apps. And click here<\/a> to stream Channel 9 Eyewitness News live.<\/p>\n