Jacksonville Beach police provide update on fatal active shooter incident

um this news conference will be posted on Facebook live and also on our website for reference um uh first and foremost I'd like you to remember there was um at least one innocent victim um um struck by gunfire last night and uh one person lost her life last night so I'd like youall to remember them throughout this press conference um I would like to thank first and foremost uh Sheriff TK Waters State Attorney Nelson St John's County Sheriff Robert Hardwick FD Le sack Mike Williams ATF special agent in charge Kirk Howard and our our perennial Mutual Aid Partners um Neptune Beach Police Department chief Mike key and atlan Beach Police Department chief Vic gillow thank you to law enforcement officers from those agencies also that came to our assistance last night and um the leaders for each of them who each of those that personally contacted me last night by phone when I was on the scene um they continue to offer any help as needed and I will be taking them up on that most likely most of all I'd like to thank the Jacksonville Beach Police Department's staff who handled those incidents last night with professionalism dedication and courage without their efforts I believe loss of life would have been greater I have the best staff in the country earlier this this week one of our Intel analysts identified possible Gathering of juveniles underneath the pier planned for yesterday Sunday at 2 p.m. anywhere from 250 to 400 juveniles and their late teens arrived at that location because of the intelligence information we proactively had officers assigned to this group this group engaged in boxing matches fights and other incidents and Jacksonville B Beach Police Department had take action and disperse the crowd when the crowd was dispersed that's when the shootings happened we had of course extra Personnel already working because we received intelligence concerning this incident in addition to this we had TPC St Patrick's Day Celebrations and the regular Sunday Beach crowd and the roadways were packed because of the high-profile nature of this incident last night in addition to National media coverage and public interest concerning this topic I'm sharing as much information with you as possible I cannot emphasize the chaotic nature of the incident last night we are currently working three separate unrelated shootings at this time there are the details believed to have occurred any information is gathered things may change I'm telling you this is only a few hours old we're giving you the best information we have right now and I'll emphasize once again some of this may change the initial shooting took place in the 400 block of the boardwalk just east of the Best Western Hotel at approximately 7:50 p.m. officers were already present on scene and on viewed the shooting and therefore the response time was Zero we had officers on the scene as a result their response time was 0 seconds like I said they had immediately attempted to apprehend the suspects and and immediately rendered Medical Aid to the victim's suspects at approximately 83 p.m. officers on viewed a male running by a bar who displayed a pistol and fired a shot a foot chase ensued and during the chaos in the downtown area the suspect eluded officers that's scene number two at 8:31 hours we responded to a shooting behind sneaker's bar I had command staff on the scene who heard the gunfire I had at Lan Beach police officer that almost went on scene immediately once again our response time was a mere seconds at this time I decided based on multiple Shooters unknown multiple victims unknown to issue an active threat alert to our um reverse 911 lock down our bars and immediately Evacuate the downtown area because of uh the unknown known circumstances of the shooter last night once the Bars were locked down my main our main priority was to secure the crime scenes and escort all innocent civilians from the area and from Lockdown businesses huge task on a Sunday night in Jacksonville Beach on what was basically a holiday lock everybody in place we had to evacuate everybody and clear the streets and look for possible shooters or more suspects um before we could investig any crime scenes we had to establish and maintain security of the crime scenes and the downtown area while also looking for the suspect or suspects our uh Jacksonville Beach Police Department SWAT team was also requested to assist with searches for any outstanding suspects and to escort patrons from businesses many of the SWAT team members were already working on scene working their primary duties whether it be Det detectives or police officers or supervisors at 8:34 p.m. we called in all crime scene investigators all detectives all SWAT team members and all Command Staff Additionally the city manager and mayor responded once the scene was Secure for media response and briefing I would also like to take this time to uh thank the mayor and city manager um they showed up last night my request they have been nothing but help helpful and supportive and they remain so to this moment and they're sitting right up front here with me I can't tell you how much it meant to me for them to come to the scene last night and check on me check on my guys and girls and to be there for us like they always are and I'd like to thank him personally along with other city council members at this time all scenes have been cleared however investigation continues once again this is multiple suspects and multiple scen means we have multiple shell casings from pistol and rifle caliber weapons down on the ground two of these Firearms have been recovered summary those injured involved in the shooting last night or the following the first incident at the Best Western three people in totality were injured or shot two were transported by rescue and one later self-reported to Mayo and was transported to Shan two are in serious condition one is in stable condition um I'll release suspect information in a minute so the first shooting two um victim suspects shoot at each other they are wounded and are in serious condition surgery um one victim the third was a complete innocent bystander who was visiting from out of town um he's in serious condition was hit three times Night by gunfire um the suspect is um uh one suspect is a tall thin black male that's still outstanding and um that's all I can release at this moment we have no ID on them right now though um so once again three people in totality um we believe at this time that the first two victims were shooting at each other and they're both victim suspects at this time the the third person was an innocent civilian from mwn Vis in the hotel was struck by gunfire so I got three in serious condition but stable at hospitals on incident one inent two no injuries no one hit by gunfire the suspect who eluded officers is a tall thin black male with a ski mask we've recovered a pistol from uh scene two um the third incident um uh behind sneakers Barn Grill um and the unit block of First Street s uh North the victim is deceased is a black male 21 years of age NEX of kin has been notified on the third call um from what we're getting from Witnesses um uh there was some kind of disturbance um three suspects all black males um presented Firearms um only one person shot their firearm and that is uh the description on that sub suspect is a tall thin uh six foot tall black male with a uh short beard um that's all we have um on on that and the other two um suspects to pull Firearms but not fire also black male suspects we have no further information on that um we are reviewing multiple uh videotapes we will take anything we can get from social media from uh the police uh from hipsters you can contact us at 247 904 27661 ask for a detective um ask for the detective section reference the incidence from last night or you can always call Crim Stoppers we'll also take any um social media that you can send us that you're aware of that's out there now with that said I'm going to take some questions we'll go one at a time um go ahead Tanya did you have a question Ela you have anything you have any questions um there was reports of Officer firing uh we had no officer involved shooting last night we have no uh no officers once we counted for everyone that discharge their weapons um we probably could have an amazing restraint officers were concerned about background and the thousands of people running around down there on sidewalks and stuff um so um U rest assured though if um they would have presented uh the suspects would have met the deadly force criteria we would have applied that deadly force if we could have to defend the lives of ourselves or innocent civilians any other questions no officer involved shooting last night any for you you can lies I'll come back to you yes ma'am were any of the shooters arrested uh no we have not made any arrests at this time we're still working on the investigation Tommy is that correct yes we'll work our way back around if you got additional yes yes sir so uh is it believe that any of these shootings are being related at this time um the um one of the suspects that's self-reported on incident one is a certified gang member the Jacksonville through the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office on incident one he self-reported to the hospital yes sir is it possible that one of the suspects could have been involved in all three of these incidents from what we can tell at this time no we believe they're unrelated based on the first two suspects were hit and transported by rescue were self-reported to the hospital the uh second shooting scene the foot foot chase proceeded North from a local bar away from location of number three complete opposite direction we had a perimeter set and we were actively looking for two when three occurred we don't believe this time they made their way back and the descriptions are a little different so we believe they're all unrelated and there wasn't one shooter yes do we believe that all of the shoters out of town or do we think some of them were out of town out of Jacksonville Beach or out of Jacksonville visiting um into the area or do you think they were all here just on vacation um I don't know at this time I um as best we can tell they're not citizens of Jacksonville Beach unknown if they're residents of Jacksonville or Duval County at this time um that's preliminary so that's that's all I have on suspect um we had I've been contacted by um um previously before this with the break Big Break on push on Spring breaking for Smith um we had received no solid in intelligence from our people or from um state agencies or JSO that we were receiving any overflow from down south if that was your question best we can tell we've received no overflow many other spring break locations um close by so so we can only assume and it's very thin assumption that these are all local Duvall County or in the area Northeast Florida residents um we just have received nothing on online to indicate overflow from down south yes sir Chief can you be a little clear where scene 2 is as opposed to just in front of a bar and then secondly you guys secured and seized a vehicle last night a blue vehicle out of a parking lot um for processing I guess is that possibly one of our susp Vehicles I'll answer the uh first one first so the um the uh first scene is uh the 400 block BoardWalk hotel you got that uh scene two is the north parking lot of a local bar the rits um this had nothing to do with the establishment someone running through so that's number two location um The Ritz Bar parking lot number three location is sneakers behind parking lot so when you're looking at everything today you'll be able to kind of see when you go down there I'm sure you'll be able to kind of get a view of what we were looking at last night the actual Ritz parking lot or that parking lot adjacent to it to the North it's kind of the continuation from the city parking lot so sou West Park lot from the city parking lot to the east okay so and this was a continuous foot foot chase sure so um yes and then the vehicle oh the vehicle the vehicle was Tak vitim and vitim yes sir Chief the fact that one person who had nothing to do with this situation was killed in in this incident I mean I just want to know you know how's your heart feeling right now um for the victims of course always um um because people come to the city um to enjoy themselves they live here they visit here and quite frankly I'm pissed off um if if you know we have a reputation out here as a Law and Order City I'm a Law and Order police chief I have complete support of my city council my city management I don't think any of y'all that know me um y'all would have the misconception that I'm nothing but a Law and Order police chief um for those of y'all out there that know me and um uh this goes back 30 years uh and like I've always said I want you to come to Jacksonville Beach I want you to live here I want you to visit but if you break the law we're going to put you in jail and um some people may need some reminders of that and that'll be forthcoming in the next few weeks that's been our reputation and we will consistently uphold that reputation you need to go somewhere else um if you're going to commit a crime don't come here and um fair warning for future if you're going to commit a crime once again for the third time don't come here um and then whine about being arrested or detained um because that's what we're going to do we're going to do our jobs okay yes sir I understand that uh you're giving a warning out to the people who uh might want to act up in Jack Beach but reassure the people who want to visit uh Jack Beach who want to have that good time at the bars and beaches reassure their safety real quick good good question we are statistically safe a safe City our challenge is for 25,000 residents we have to um police a population much bigger on any given day of the week any day of the year um statistically even with that huge influx we are very safe I mean there's been articles uh The Daily Beast per capita where the busiest beach in in 2008 were the busiest uh beach in the country with 8 million estimated visitors so when you start to look at the stats we're safe but we also if we don't make people feel safe what are we doing um we have to make people feel safe um you know if you um if you travel 15 blocks or 20 blocks away um yesterday it was a quiet Sunday afternoon so um I will reiterate that once again we are safe um with all the population influx we got every weekend um this is a one off but it's going to happen it's a game in numbers if you have a 100 people visiting your city a year and opponent's number out of the a 2% are criminals you only have a couple if you have 8 million people visiting your city a year and 2% of criminals got a lot um so our challenge is to police this population that we get a large influx with but I live in the city I feel safe in the city um I think we have a the best police department in the country I have a uh supportive Council city council I have absolutely supportive um City management I have citizens that are fantastic that support us and supported us through a lot of years and a lot of trials and tribulations I have the best staff in the country and I I feel like the most fortunate Chief in the country to have all this support and uh um we'll get through this but but you I can't stop everything we can't stop everything even with a cop on every corner um I will urge the safe City but um we're going to redouble our efforts to make the perception that's a safe City a reality yes sir quick pieces of information I just missed while down what time was the sneaker shooting again the third incident the the third incident was by okayy the third incident was 831 p.m. so let me let me go through it again 750 was number one number two was 813 and number three was 831 and then to reiterate um which one of the incidents resulted in that death that was the first one which which incident was what which one of them had the uh the death was that the first oh that was number three number three and I got to take you through this progression as I show up on scene um in the area the second one goes out at 8:13 um at the at the bar at par lot and then a little bit later at 8:31 um number three goes out and although we were relatively confident that uh we did not have one gunman um at that time with 50 60 70 policemen at 8:31 p.m. within a 12 block area and I'm still having Round Shot and we have some problems you know all these calls were basically in front of the police um and um pretty bold and then uh one question just to w obviously spring break is already a high traffic time of year for Jacksonville Beach or Beach but especially after these shootings are you guys planning on having increased control and increased officers in the beach as a of this this you know we're intelligence driven um so uh so let me answer your question first uh first um I'm not going to tell you I'm not going to I'm not going to give them away my hand um I'm I'm I like it to be a surprised um you can probably bet if you know me that yeah we're going to be doing some things um but with that said we're intelligence driven if I go Max effort which is all 70 of my policemen working and call Mutual Aid every weekend that we have large groups of juveniles big bar crowd a lot of people on the beach and a lot of people in the city and on the roadways we will literally be deploying Max effort 365 a year so I have to let intelligence drive like yesterday we were prepared I got to let that Intel Drive our efforts because there throwing bodies at problems when you defend everything you're defending nothing you're just riding around burning your officers off and wasting money so who else last question yes sir je um normal festivities going on if nothing were to happen that kind of thing how many officers did you have working the detail and then with whatever help you were able to get from whoever sent you whatever how many did you end up with do you think um we had probably approximately 15 to 20 officers on duty um between extra Duty for instance at the Lo a couple local bars close by to the detail to the street people um the people working Patrol um probably 15 to 20 by the time it's ended up I don't know 60 70 um total officers showed up do you guys ever put a guesstimate to the size of the crowd you're dealing with um no um but um I all of y'all have been down here on a on a busy weekend you know um it could be anywhere from um ballparking five to 15,000 anyone given time um down here on First Street so um once again and don't forget we all have limited resources there's not a police chief or sheriff in this country that wouldn't take more people and more money but I have to Resource allocate just like everybody else does and don't forget I have a tax base of 25,000 and I have 100 employees which is a pretty good size department for that residence uh number of residents in tax Bas but I have to police a population much larger but I am uh this is every beach in Florida every police chief and Sheriff that has a beach in Florida faces the same dilemma of the influx of people um so so it is difficult to Resource allocate I have 70 sworn officers but you got to stretch out over 7 days a week 24 hours a day injuries vacancies Command Staff detectives and you start people got to have days off so it starts to dwindle down um so everybody a lot of people working overtime and extra Duty yesterday and you also have to be careful that because you're burning the people out hey thank you uh we're going to wait around after the mayor here and I'm here so we're going to end this now um there'll probably be more if we have any followup this afternoon but it'll probably be by press release if anything major break we'll notify you and we'll do this again thank [Music] you how was huh I don't know oh

Channel: FOX 13 Tampa Bay

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Length: 24min 40sec (1480 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 18 2024