JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A Jacksonville business owner who had a close-up view of a four-hour-long SWAT standoff Thursday is sharing his experience after capturing the Southside Boulevard incident on camera.
Ben Kingsbury, owner of the Gotham City Limit comic book store covered the entire incident on a Facebook livestream, drawing hundreds of local viewers.
First Coast News spoke to Kingsbury just minutes after the standoff ended about being at the center of the drama – along with his loyal shop dog.
"The whole street was blocked off. There were cop cars or snipers lying in the middle of the road. There was actually a gentleman and he had been inside the serenity salon when everything went down. So I started talking to him and he said he was inside a room about to get a massage when he heard a man yell, I'm not going back to prison, lock the door," Kingsbury said.
Gabriel Cambla entered Serenity Spa on Southside Boulevard with a handgun around 11:25 a.m., Jacksonville police spokesman Chief T.K. Waters said.
After entering the business, the 33-year-old appeared agitated and told everyone in the building to leave.
Everyone safely exited the building except for one woman, according to JSO.
While Cambla repeatedly told her to leave and call police, JSO said the woman attempted to calm the man down by asking him to lay down and by talking to him.
JSO said Cambla listened to the woman, who then told him she was going to make sure everyone was out of the building. She then took that opportunity to leave the business.
Around 3:25 p.m., a crisis negotiator successfully asked Cambla to exit the building, and he was apprehended by a K9 officer.
"We started asking the cops what was going on and they said everything had been resolved and no one got hurt, which means that hopefully, the man who didn't want to go back to jail is exactly doing that going back to prison because that was absolutely insane," Kingsbury said.
Cambla was transported to a local hospital with minor injuries he suffered as a result of the K9 apprehension.
"I don't think anybody on Southside was ready for it. So it feels surreal to me. I gotta be honest with you. I think it'll take me a little while to process everything that just happened. Because it was just a normal day at the shop and then life will throw you a curveball, right," Kingsbury said.