JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – News4JAX on Tuesday spoke with a good Samaritan, who rushed to try and help a man inside a car that was riddled with bullet holes.
The shooting happened Christmas Day near the intersection of Normandy Boulevard and Chaffee Road. The man in the car, who the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office said was in his 20s, did not survive.
Ashli Bennett said she and her family were driving home from a Christmas party, when they noticed a car in the middle of the road. They immediately knew something wasn’t right.
“It was odd to us how this particular car was sitting there because it looked like it was getting ready to merge into the lane, but it was just sitting there,” Bennett said. “Lights were on, the car was still running, everything.”
They knew something wasn’t right and turned around.
“We notice coming down the side of it there are bullet holes, you know, in the window on the driver’s side,” Bennett said.
She looked inside the car and saw the man in his 20s seriously injured.
“I Immediately, I wanted to open the door and just go to him,” Bennett said. “But I knew, like, this is a crime scene at the same time. I can’t touch nothing.”
“I just told him, like, you know, ‘Hey, if you can hear me, hold on, they’re coming,” she added. “I could hear the fire rescue, I could hear them coming.”
He would later die from his injuries.
“I want them (his family) to know he mattered,” Bennett said. “He mattered to me and my family, and I really mean that from the bottom of my heart. He didn’t deserve that. No one deserves to just be out here in the middle of the road like that.”
A person of interest was detained on the night of the shooting, police said, but no arrests have been announced.
Anyone with information related to the incident can call 904-630-0500 or Crime Stoppers at 1-866-845-TIPS.