JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — In 13 hours in Jacksonville, four violent crimes took place. Five people total were shot, according to Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office, and one of them was a man found dead in a car.
“All hands should be on deck right now because our city’s in a crisis,” said First Coast News Crime and Safety Expert Ken Jefferson.
A man on Jacksonville’s northside listed in critical condition was shot during a dispute, police say, Sunday before noon. Just over six hours earlier, a man was shot inside his home by someone outside, according to JSO. Less than an hour before that on Arlington Expressway, police say a man was found shot dead in a car. Just five hours before this, two people were shot at a party in west Jacksonville, police say. This shooting was less than three miles from another one of the shootings.
Officers with JSO say they do not know if any of the crimes are linked and do not know if gang activity was involved in any of them.
“There’s no silver bullet that can just stop it altogether,” Jefferson said.
Jefferson tells First Coast News it seems many young people are now trying to solve conflicts with guns. In the past two weeks, two teenagers have been shot and killed in separate parts of town.
“Young people need to learn how to resolve conflict without a weapon,” he said. “But it doesn’t take much for some people to get offended and if they’re offended, they get in an argument, they have a confrontation, they resolve it with a gun. It’s just crazy to be able to have access to those guns that easily. You can get a gun quicker than you can get a sandwich from Subway.”
A new way the mayor’s office is trying to address violence is through its literacy initiative. Literacy advocates call literacy a “crime prevention strategy.” The Literacy Alliance of Northeast Florida reports that 75 percent of state prison inmates have low literacy skills or did not complete high school.
“We know that the victims are affected, but we also want to know, how are the businesses?’” said Geneva Pittman, a member of a group of religious leaders working on crime prevention. “How are the schools? What does the mayor think of all this violence?”
Pittman is with the group ICARE, Interfaith Coalition for Action, Reconciliation and Empowerment, which is hosting a community meeting Monday evening to discuss crime prevention. The meeting was at 6:30 p.m. at Christ the King Catholic Church, which is located at 742 Arlington Road North. The church is less than a mile away from where the man was found dead in a car the day before.
Officers with Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office say the sheriff will not be there and they do not believe a representative from the sheriff's office will attend.
Representatives with the mayor’s office say since the mayor is in Washington, a member of her staff who’s handling the reboot of the crime prevention program Jacksonville Journey will be there.
Pittman says they must all work for a safer Jacksonville.
“We can go to the shopping centers and not have to worry about a mass shooting,” Pittman said, referencing the New Town Dollar General shooting last August where a white man shot and killed three Black people.
Also over the weekend, police made arrests in two cases where 16-year-olds were killed.
Damon Wilson, 27, was arrested Friday night in connection to the shooting death of 16-year-old Layla D. Johnson in New Town. Colton Moore, 19, was arrested in connection to the shooting death of 16-year-old Derek Pitts just before New Year's Eve.
The mayor's office also sent First Coast News the following quote to use for this story:
“Mayor Deegan is committed to supporting community-based crime reduction strategies and collaborative initiatives in Jacksonville. Our efforts are rooted in a comprehensive approach, encompassing prevention, intervention, and enforcement, supported by community engagement, transparency, and oversight. We look forward to continued collaboration with partners and citizens to make Jacksonville a safer community.”