GILCHRIST COUNTY, Fla. — First Coast News is pushing for answers as veterans speak out criticizing how deadly Memorial Day weekend shootings were handled at Ginnie Springs.
The latest person who has died is Marco Mandujano, a 26-year-old father. He was an innocent bystander shot Saturday.
Veterans who rushed to help after the first shooting at Ginnie Springs Memorial Day weekend say they’re angry that rules laid out in the springs’ waiver, including no firearms and no excessive drinking, were not enforced. They believe there needs to be more accountability for the two deaths in one weekend.
“I am extremely angry with Gilchrist County Sheriff's Office, with Ginnie Springs," said Stacy Shanks, a Navy veteran who was there that weekend. “Hand it over to the state. Shut them down. Shut them down.”
First Coast News is following the investigations into the shootings Friday and Saturday that killed Jacksonville native, 34-year-old Koty Stewart and Mandujano.
Shanks said her campsite was next to the suspects later arrested in Stewart’s homicide and earlier that day she helped them park their car. She and her daughter, Navy Veteran Jeralynn Evans, said the sheriff’s deputies didn’t listen to them.
“We repeatedly, repeated [to] five different officers, I know of for sure I told,” Shanks said. “’The person matching the description, that's their car right there!’ And there are people in it, mind you. This was inside their so-called secure crime scene.”
The sheriff’s office said Friday they would not comment on the accusations.
Evans described Saturday night when Mandujano and three other innocent bystanders were shot.
“Not knowing what was going on, waiting for the call from her, not knowing if it was my mother who had gotten shot,” she said. “I just, I'm numb and ticked off.”
“People need to know that Ginnie Springs and the Gilchrist County Sheriff's Office let them down.”
A manager at the entrance to Ginnie Springs told First Coast News they will not be commenting and did not have a way for us to contact the owners. First Coast News has not heard back over email when we asked about how they enforce any security measures.