During St. Patrick’s Day celebrations in Jacksonville Beach’s bar district on Sunday night, multiple gunmen opened fire, killing one person and leaving three others injured. The shootings occurred in three separate incidents over the span of a couple hours, police said in a press conference Monday morning.
Timeline of shootings
The first incident happened at 7:30 p.m., the second incident at 8:13 p.m. and the third incident at 8:31 p.m. In the first shooting, two people shot at each other and injured one innocent bystander in the process. Two of the three people involved are stable and one is in critical condition. The second incident yielded no injuries or deaths. The third incident left one 21-year-old man dead. Police have notified his next of kin.
Based on various factors, police unequivocally believe these shootings to be unconnected.
In the press conference, police confirmed having a larger presence in the area due to tips of large gatherings of underaged people. As a result, their response time following the shots was nearly immediate.
After the third shooting, with “multiple shooters unknown (and) multiple victims unknown,” police initiated an active threat alert and locked down and evacuated the area.
Residents were urged to shelter in place until Sunday night
According to Fox 13, people in the area were advised to shelter in place in the immediate aftermath of the shooting. Police lifted the advisory at 10:54 p.m., they announced on Facebook.
According to Sgt. Tonya Tator with the Jacksonville Beach Police Department, the shooting occurred “out in the open,” CNN reported.
Tator said, “We’ve got a lot of work ahead of us to figure out everything, to put all the pieces together. So we’re just asking that if anybody sees anything, hears anything, knows of someone that was involved to please (call the police department),” per CNN.
With spring break vacationers and St. Patrick’s Day revelers packing an already busy area, local bars and restaurants were prepared for something to happen.
Casey Jones was at a bar a block away from the shooting and had friends nearby. He told WJXT, “What they said is when it happened that management rushed them up to the second level; they put stuff in the windows. I don’t know what they put in the windows, but it’s really nice that the bars were prepared for this and the way they took care of us.”
“My whole staff was prepared and we have armed security. We were well prepared. We helped the gentleman that was shot, our staff did,” Evan Rajta, owner of the Salt bar and restaurant in Jacksonville Beach, told WJXT.
As of Monday morning, “all scenes have been cleared but investigation continues,” police revealed in the press conference Monday. No arrests have been made at this time.