JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – MAD DADS is speaking out with a warning after a woman was shot Sunday while attending a vigil for 16-year-old Adrian McKinzie, who was killed in a triple shooting last Wednesday in Northwest Jacksonville.
McKinzie and two others were shot on Effee Street in the Moncrief Park neighborhood, which was also where the vigil was being held. People attending the vigil noticed a suspicious white car circling the block then shots were fired. One woman was struck in the arm with non-life-threatening injuries.
While vigils for gunshot victims are common in Jacksonville, AJ Jordan of the Jacksonville MAD DADS organization said it’s uncommon for a vigil to become a crime scene.
“In my 18 years of serving my community, that has never happened. The shooter was very bold and was sending a message to that family and other people at the vigil last night,” Jordan said.
When it comes to holding a vigil for a gunshot victim who has died or a neighborhood walk to solicit crime tips, MAD DADS always makes sure members of the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office are present to provide security.
“That provides safety not only for us, but the community and the families,” Jordan said. “When you have no protection, especially with large crowds or a vigil for murder, you don’t know what’s going to go down.”
Sunday’s vigil was not sponsored by MAD DADS and JSO did not know about it. Typically, when JSO provides security for vigils, especially vigils on public streets, they set up an outer perimeter to keep vehicle traffic away. And sometimes, armed detectives also attend the vigils.
“If JSO was there in their marked police cars and their uniforms, most likely (the shooting) would not have happened (at the vigil),” Jordan said.
After what happened Sunday, MAD DADS issued a warning to everyone, including the news media, when it comes to attending a vigil for a murder where there is no protection, especially when a suspect has not been arrested.
“For the community’s safety, for news media safety, I would say stay away because there’s a killer out there and killers don’t care. So, we all need to stay safe,” Jordan said.
The motive for the shooting that killed McKinzie is unclear, but social media has been a buzz with speculation about his death.
“Social media definitely plays a huge role, especially among our young adults and teenagers. They do a lot of beefing and talking on social media and then once it reaches a certain level, they act on it,” Jordan said.
Jordan said the fact that Sunday’s drive-by shooting injured someone attending the vigil, just days after McKinzie was one of three people shot days prior means the likelihood of a retaliatory shooting is very high.
“We don’t know when. It could be a week from now. It could be two weeks. It could be a year from now. We just don’t know,” Jordan said. “That’s why we send the message that we’re taking our community back from the criminal.”
Jordan said many of the young people involved in these shootings have never been exposed to anything other than the environment they live in. He also said something as simple as exposing people to positive environments when they are young could go a long way.