Community members and local leaders are seeking answers after two deadly shootings at Jacksonville gatherings early Sunday morning left two people dead and 11 others injured.<\/p>\n
According to the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office, the first shooting happened shortly before 2 a.m. in the 6200 block of Arlington Expressway. Investigators said people were waiting in line for a Halloween gathering when a fight broke out and someone opened fire.<\/p>\n
A 17-year-old girl was killed and two other people were injured. Police said the victims were not involved in the dispute that led to the gunfire.<\/p>\n
About two hours later, around 3:45 a.m., officers responded to another shooting at a house party on West 5th Street. Investigators said a fight at the gathering escalated into gunfire, leaving a 20-year-old dead and nine others wounded.<\/p>\n
District 1 Jacksonville City Council member Ken Amaro, whose district includes part of the area where the Arlington shooting occurred, said the violence highlights a larger community problem.<\/p>\n
“This is very unfortunate. Lives are lost, and until we as a community speak up and say we’re not gonna tolerate it, I’m afraid that this is gonna continue to be a problem,” Amaro said.<\/p>\n
Amaro said he plans to work with authorities to learn more about the venue where the Arlington shooting occurred and determine whether there are ongoing concerns associated with the property.<\/p>\n
“I’m gonna get with law enforcement, code enforcement, and the other authorities to see if this place, this location is a problem, and if it is a problem, how can we address it,” Amaro said.<\/p>\n
Neighbors near the West 5th Street shooting said they heard arguments before gunfire erupted.<\/p>\n
“I was asleep and I heard the party taking off, I guess about 2:30. Other than that, that’s all I heard. Then I heard people arguing. They walked from there to down here. So then I see them walking back that way and then about an hour later I heard the gunshots,” one witness said.<\/p>\n
During a separate press briefing Sunday, Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters addressed the violence that occurred during Halloween celebrations across the city.<\/p>\n
“It’s disappointing. The bad guys need to be held accountable. You should be able to have a party. You should be able to get together without gunshots ringing out and hurting people and murdering people,” Waters said.<\/p>\n
No arrests have been announced in either case. The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office is asking anyone with information to contact the JSO non-emergency line or Crime Stoppers. Investigations into both shootings remain active.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Community members and local leaders are seeking answers after two deadly shootings at Jacksonville gatherings early Sunday morning…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":445986,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[116,118,117],"class_list":["post-445985","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445985","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=445985"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445985\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/445986"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=445985"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=445985"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=445985"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}