JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A manhunt for a person presumed dangerous by Jacksonville police continued Tuesday — more than 24 hours after it began.
On Tuesday evening, members of the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office SWAT team were spotted at an apartment building on Stanford Avenue behind the Lakewood shopping plaza.
After several attempts to order the man out went unanswered, officers entered the building. Moments later, they came back out, learning the man wasn’t there.
The manhunt began early Monday morning when police say a woman who arrived at a storage facility across the street from the building told police the man shot a gun in her direction. The woman told police it happened outside the gates.
Police say after the shot was fired, the man hopped in a white pickup truck and took off. Police say they found a shotgun on the ground where the man reportedly fired the gun. A radio call went out to other officers in the area to be on the lookout for the white pickup.
A woman, who spoke to News4JAX on a condition of anonymity, said she and her friend were walking inside the nearby Oaklawn Cemetery when they came across something strange.
“We saw a young man standing outside a white truck and he was saying things that sounded incoherent. It was kind of frightening,” she said.
At the time, they didn’t know police were looking for someone presumed dangerous.
“I automatically got a bad vibe and I called the office of the cemetery because I was afraid. In retrospect, I should have called 911, but I thought we could get out of there fast enough. He was not following us, but he was pretty scary,” the woman said.
She said when she walked back into her neighborhood, she discovered police were everywhere, so she asked officers what was going on.
“They said they were looking for a white gentleman in a pickup truck. Well, I had just seen him five minutes before. That’s pretty frightening,” the woman said.
She said the description officers gave her was the same description of the man she saw at the cemetery.
“He had a man bun. He had clothes on at the time. I think they were yellow shorts and he was driving an older model GMC pickup truck,” the woman said.
Later in the day, several people reported seeing the same man wearing only his underwear. And the white truck was later found by police in a nearby apartment complex parking lot.
The search continued through the night along a creek as police went door to door.
“Very concerning because this neighborhood is so quiet,” resident Paul Stevenson told News4JAX.
“They basically asked if we had seen anything suspicious,” said resident Spencer Hayes.
Anyone with information that could assist in the search is asked to contact the Sheriff’s Office.