JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Two mornings in a row the sound of gunfire marked areas around Jacksonville. As a result, four teens have been fatally shot.
Two of the crime scenes are in the same part of town. On Commonwealth Avenue, two teens were found gunned down inside a wrecked car.
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Not far from there, a 17-year-old was killed at the Eureka Garden Apartments on Labelle Street.
The other fatal shooting was on the Southside on Old Kings Road South, and police said it might have been self-defense.
Tuesday morning, Nettie Pinckney watched her grandson die in her arms.
"I just ran to him, grabbed his hand and said, 'Granny's here. Granny's here, just keep breathing baby, just keep breathing,'" Pinckney said.
Her grandson, Rico Melvin, was 17 year old when he died.
"I was holding his hand. I was trying to talk to him to keep him coherent," Pinckney said.
Melvin's death marked the fourth teen killed in Jacksonville in the past 24 hours.
The deaths started Monday morning when 17-year-old Tommy Kennedy died on Old Kings Road. A few hours after that, 17-year-old William Flournoy and 19-year-old Travis Odol were found shot to death in their car on the Westside.
"Somebody needs to take control of these teenagers with these weapons," said Pinckney.
The Jacksonville Sheriff's Office said Pinckney is right, and that teen trend has everything to do with guns in hands that are too young.
"It's obviously alarming. Any death is alarming -- any murder or homicide. However, people have to tell us what they know. Their friends know they carry them. Their neighbors know they carry them, and they need to let the police know that they carry them," said Melissa Bujeda of the JSO.
"It's so senseless to see young people die," Pinckney said. "The younger generation are killing each other out for nothing."