JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office is investigating a shooting turned SWAT situation at the Hollybrook Homes Apartments in Jacksonville’s Lackawanna neighborhood.
Action News Jax was on scene Thursday morning and heard loud bangs and SWAT over a loudspeaker shouting demands to someone in the apartments. Authorities breached one apartment unit; however, an officer told Action News Jax Thursday morning that nobody was inside.
This isn’t the first time a teenager has been shot at Hollybrook Apartments. In 2023, we told you about another teenager who was shot twice in the leg.
“I thought some guy pulled up in that lot, blew out a tire or something,” Roger Sides, a truck driver who parked overnight nearby and heard officers breach the apartment, said. “I get up and I see police and you guys out here and I’m like, what the heck is going on?”
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According to the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office, the scene began at around 8:50 p.m. Wednesday night, when officers responded to the apartment complex on Kings Road and found a teenager shot in the chest.
One mother told Action News Jax what she heard while she and her baby were standing outside of her front door at Hollybrook Apartments. She asked that we not identify her for safety purposes.
“He was running past us, he was like ‘somebody call 911, I just got shot!” said the witness.
Jacksonville Fire and Rescue responded and took the victim, in his late teens, to the hospital, where he was later pronounced dead.
The shooter — described as an older bald man wearing all black clothing — was caught on surveillance video running away from the apartments in an unknown direction.
“Somebody said it was a young man killed, and I hate it for him and his family and everybody else,” Sides told Action News Jax Thursday morning. “And I hated it had come to a point where someone felt they had to do this.”
Sides said the incident serves as yet another reminder of the need for compassion over violence.
“Life is too short. I got great grandkids, six of them. And I’d hate to think what’s coming to them, or someone just like for a second to do something that’s permanent, that you can’t change,” Sides reflected. “Too much evil in the world.”
JSO says the suspect is still on the run. They described him as an older bald man wearing all black clothing. If you know anything or saw anything, call JSO immediately at 904-630-0500.
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