JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Jacksonville has recorded its 28th homicide of 2019 after one of three shooting incidents within less than three hours Friday proved deadly.
“It’s really hard to believe, with Jacksonville being what it is and what it’s becoming,” said Chris Hendricks, who was delayed access to his own home on Crownwood Drive in the Ironwood neighborhood off Gate Parkway because of crime scene tape.
A shooting about 1 p.m. in a neighboring townhouse left an adult male dead.
Police were treating it as a domestic incident. It was the second of three shootings. The first happened at around 11:30 a.m. in Durkeeville and injured two men. The third incident happened at 1:45 p.p. on Jacksonville’s Eastside and left a 16-year-old boy with non-life-threatening injuries. The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office reported later in the day that it didn’t suspect criminal intent in the Eastside incident.
In an already bitterly-contested upcoming mayoral election, ads by prominent candidate Anna Brosche have targeted incumbent Mayor Lenny Curry and the city’s crime statistics during his administration.
“The Curry Crime Wave,” she called it after completing a roundtable discussion at Mt. Sinai Baptist Church Friday evening, less than two miles from two of the day’s shootings.
A recent poll by the University of North Florida found that crime is the most important issue on the minds of 62 percent of those polled. Education, at 13 percent, is a distant second. Chris Hendricks said the violence will affect how he votes.
“Yeah, it definitely does, it’s very concerning,” he said.
“We’re serving about 36.8 percent of children living at or below poverty,” Brosche said, insisting on “more robust prevention and intervention, and investment in our children and making sure that they have options.”
Asked more about her top strategies to improve on Mayor Curry’s effectiveness, Brosche said it is critical “that we utilize the technology that we have, the GIS mapping at a street level ... and then getting out into the neighborhoods and understanding our street-level leaders.”
Brosche insisted that all of the items she mentioned are strategies she is much better-equipped to execute than her incumbent opponent.
Mayor Lenny Curry and his staff did not respond to First Coast News’ request for comment Friday.
As of Friday evening, the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office said it had a suspect in the deadly shooting on the Southside, and that it is not pursuing any more suspects in any of the Friday incidents.