Jacksonville Beach shootings: St. Patrick’s Day panic not the first instance of holiday violence

JACKSONVILLE BEACH, Fla. — Panic ensued on Sunday as people ran from the sounds of gunshots in Jacksonville Beach during St. Patrick’s Day celebrations.

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Here’s what we know about the three separate, unrelated shootings that police are investigating:

• The initial shooting was near the boardwalk & Best Western Hotel at around 7:50 p.m., and officers were already in the area when it happened. Three people were shot and two people were shooting at each other. An innocent bystander was hit. The other two people are considered “victim-suspects.”
• The second shooting happened at around 8:13 p.m. in the parking lot outside the Ritz Bar. A suspect in a ski mask opened fire before dumping the pistol, which was recovered by police. No one was injured in this shooting.
• The third shooting happened at around 8:31 p.m. outside Sneakers Bar. There were 3 suspects and one person was killed. Police did not say if the person who died was a suspect or innocent bystander.

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Jacksonville Beach Mayor Chris Hoffman spoke with Action News Jax’s Jake Stofan about safety in the city in the wake of the shootings and during the spring break season.

“This is senseless violence multiple times over, which is not something that we routinely see here in Jacksonville Beach. So I do want to reassure people that this is a safe community,” Hoffman said.

Past violence on holidays in Jacksonville Beach

Unfortunately, this isn’t the first time that the Beaches have seen violence on a holiday.

On Memorial Day in 2013, Action News Jax showed you how several small fights caught on video snowballed into a larger brawl. This led the Jacksonville Beach Police Department to request assistance from Neptune Beach and Atlantic Beach police departments, as well as the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office.

WATCH OUR 2013 STORY BELOW:

2013 Action News Jax story: Videos show Memorial Day brawl at Jacksonville Beach 2013 Action News Jax story: Videos show Memorial Day brawl at Jacksonville Beach

In July of that same year, we told you how police suspended the investigation into the brawl with no arrests. Investigators said at the time they didn’t have enough evidence to prosecute anyone.

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Action News Jax also told you in 2017 when Glen McNeil Jr., 23, was killed in Jacksonville Beach several hours after the city’s Fourth of July fireworks show.

Javoris Deandre Price, then 18, was arrested in November 2017 in McNeil’s killing and was later sent to prison.

Two other teens, Kejuan Marques Jones, then 16, and Darius Kenard Jackson, then 17, were also arrested in McNeil’s killing and later sentenced to prison.

According to Florida Department of Corrections records, Price is scheduled to be released on June 23; Jones is set to be released in 2032; and Jackson is set to be released in 2037.

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