JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – After two years in a row with more than 40 homicides through the first three months of the year, Jacksonville saw a slight downturn overall with 38 homicides reported through the end of March.
Of those, all but nine involved known gun violence, according to News4Jax records and data from the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office.
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In general, the city saw a significant drop in gun violence from last year with just 90 people shot so far in 2021 compared to the 132 people who’d been shot at this same time in 2020. In 2019, 88 people were shot in the first three months of the year.
Although the 38 reported homicides in the first quarter of 2021 are lower than what the city has seen in recent years, it’s still on the high end for the early part of the year when comparing data over the last decade. According to News4Jax records, 38 homicides is the third highest total the city has reported in the first quarter over the last 10 years.
Interestingly, six of this year’s homicides have been reported in the 32206 ZIP code, which includes Brentwood, Longbranch, parts of the Eastside and Springfield. That’s a high number for that part of the city, which saw only one homicide in the first three months of 2020 and just two in the first three months of 2019.
Combined with the 32209 ZIP code, which typically has the most homicides in the city every year, 34% of the city’s homicides so far have been reported in just two ZIP codes.
Four of the seven homicides reported in 32209 were all at the Calloway Cove Apartments, including a triple murder involving several teenage suspects that police suspect was an armed robbery gone wrong.
Of the 38 homicides, police have made an arrest in 14 cases, and two others involved police shootings, which are now being investigated by the State Attorney’s Office.
Two of the homicides involve children, including an infant and a 14-year-old girl, whose father and grandfather spoke about her tragic death with News4Jax reporter Vic Micolucci.
News4Jax attempts to track Jacksonville’s homicides throughout the year to provide some context on the city’s violence. Below is an interactive map of the locations of the homicides with the current information available about each case.