JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Wednesday morning's shooting in Spring Park was the fifth mass shooting in Jacksonville in less than a year, and the ninth mass shooting nationwide in the first 16 days of 2019, according to statistics obtained by the News4Jax I-TEAM.
Numerous researchers, including the Gun Violence Archive, define a mass shooting as having more than four victims. The first in 2019 happened on New Year's Day in Tallahassee.
In 2018, the Gun Violence Archive found there were 339 reported mass shootings in the United States, 21 of which were in Florida, including the shooting in Parkland. Five mass shootings were in Jacksonville, one was in Macclenny and another was reported in Alachua County.
In June of 2018, two teenagers were killed and two other people were wounded in a shooting on Town Center Parkway. In August, a mass shooting at the Jacksonville Landing resulted in the deaths of three people, including the shooter. Another nine people were wounded.
REPORTED MASS SHOOTINGS: 2018 archive | 2019 archive
Later in October, six people were wounded in a drive-by shooting a half-mile away from TIAA Bank Field about 30 minutes before kickoff at a Jaguars game.
AJ Jordan with the Jacksonville crime-fighting group MAD DADS said the stats are staggering.
"If you wake up and you see that on your morning news, would you want to move into that city? Not me," he said. "Whether it is a mass shooting or a single shot fired, for the family, the impact is the same. This time it was six people."