Jacksonville's Mayor Lenny Curry and Sheriff Mike Williams spoke with First Coast News Tuesday following a violent weekend marked by at least seven shootings within 48 hours.
Those seven shootings resulted in the deaths of at least four people and injured three more.
In the first 48 days of 2019, there were 21 confirmed murders in Jacksonville according to information from JSO. Additional homicides remain under investigation and are pending classification.
“One is too many, what happened this weekend was terrible and tragic," Curry said. "The facts are clear though, public safety was cut significantly four years ago, [since then] we’ve made heavy investments in there."
Curry said that because of investments in areas like crime prevention and intervention, along with the addition of more police officers, the annual surge in crime has stopped, but they are now working to drive the overall crime numbers down
Curry and Williams spoke with Cure Violence, an Illinois-based group whose mission is to reduce violence globally, to talk about ways to help combat the violence seen in Jacksonville, especially after such a tumultuous weekend.
“This will be a great addition to that, this is really [a] boots on the ground innovative approach to interrupting some of these repeat acts of violence that occur," Williams said.
The mission of Cure Violence is to reduce violence globally by treating violence as a health issue or disease and then using behavior change methods to combat it, according to their website.
"This strategy is directed really at [combating violence], so we’re looking forward to getting this off the ground,” Williams said.
Jacksonville Weekend Shootings
- RELATED: Suspect charged with the murder of Westside woman
- RELATED: Man killed in drive-by shooting in Moncrief neighborhood
- RELATED: Man killed in double shooting in Westside neighborhood
- RELATED: Man shot at apartment complex in San Souci neighborhood
- RELATED: Man shot multiple times at hotel on the Southbank
- RELATED: Man dead, woman hospitalized after Woodstock shooting
- RELATED: Man shot in front of his home during attempted carjacking in the Argyle area