JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office is investigating after a bullet was fired through the fourth-floor window of the mayor’s office at City Hall.
No one was injured, but the window was visibly damaged from the impact.
The who and why behind the damage aren’t clear, but investigators are looking into it.
It’s unclear exactly when the incident occurred, but a city council staffer on break found several 9 mm bullet casings Monday morning in James Weldon Johnson Park. An officer responded to the woman’s call around 11 a.m. and took the four spent casings into evidence.
Hours later, according to a City Hall source, the window of the mayor’s office was discovered shattered when the blinds were lifted.
News4JAX has requested comment from the mayor’s office.
Jacksonville native Taylor Sharpe, who goes to a cosmetology school nearby, said she was stunned by the news.
“That’s kind of scary. Because I didn’t hear anything about it,” Sharpe said. “But that’s wild.
City Hall employees told News4JAX on Tuesday morning that they were unaware of the broken window.
Jacksonville resident Kathy Croy said she comes to James Weldon Johnson Park early in the morning because her husband volunteers nearby.
“You’re always hearing gunfire,” Croy said. “You hear and see all kinds of stuff over here. People screaming and yelling.”
City Hall was previously struck by gunfire in August 2021 during a shooting at James Weldon Johnson Park. No one inside City Hall was injured in that incident either.
According to JSO, “there have not been any persons shots calls or discharged firearms since Nov. 8.” But that report was written before the bullet hole was found in the window.
However, JSO’s crime map shows there was a shooting on West Monroe Street on Nov. 13. There was also a report of assault nearby on Nov. 8, and a burglary reported a block away from City Hall on Saturday.
As the news broke Tuesday morning about the mayor’s damaged window, a few people gathered for a pro-Confederate monument demonstration at the park and a plane flew over downtown with a Confederate flag and a banner reading: “Curry, stop your hate!”
Mayor Lenny Curry previously came out against pro-Confederate demonstrations in the city, tweeting “There is no place for hate of any kind in our City” and saying he’d allocated money to “empower” City Council to remove Confederate monuments.
Croy said she wasn’t surprised about the apparent gunshot at the mayor’s office.
“So many people were out to get the mayor,” Croy said. “You see all over the news all the time, people are out because they don’t like what he stands for. You hear that a lot, gossip around in this little area so, you never know.”
JSO has not said if the gunfire was targeted or random.