JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – We are three days into the new year and there have been three homicides in Jacksonville.
The latest happened on Grothe Street Tuesday morning in Northwest Jacksonville.
A man was found shot on King Street by another individual, and that person took the man to a hospital where he died, police said.
“It needs to stop God,” Kecia Rose, who lives in the neighborhood, said. “It really do. It’s sad. It’s sad.”
Rose said this shooting brings back memories of her son’s shooting because he was killed in the area a little over two years ago.
“They shot my son nine times,” Rose said. “Nine times, and my heart hurts and I cry everyday.”
The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office said a 25-year-old died after the shooting and they got a notification from ShotSpotter around 1:30 a.m. indicating five rounds of gunfire.
“He was a nice young man,” Rose said. “He was such a nice, good person. People, kids getting killed. People wake up, they don’t want to bury their kids, they want their kids to bury them.”
News4JAX records show this is the fourth homicide in this area since 2018.
Other people in the neighborhood who didn’t want to be identified said they worry about violence. One mom told News4JAX she worries her kids will fall victim to it. A man in the area said crime is so bad, he and his family are moving in three weeks.
News4Jax looked at a JSO’s crime mapping tool and found from July to now there were 203 crimes committed in a half-mile radius surrounding Grothe Street.
“We can’t continue to let crime plague our community,” city councilwoman Ju’Coby Pittman said.
She represents District 8 and said it’s something she and other council members want to curb this year by bringing in more resources.
“Having services, having presence of JSO patrol as well as on bikes, you know walking the beat, getting to know the neighbors,” Pittman said.
And Pittman also said services should include things like jobs but also having mentors for youth in the area to look up to is also important, so they can stay on the right track.