JACKSONVILLE, Fla – Behavioral Health experts say we should not treat the surge in shootings in Jacksonville as the norm.
The Child Guidance Center encourages families to pay attention to each other when tragedies happen in the community.
A week ago, today, a three-year-old girl was shot and killed.
3 days later, a 6 and 12-year-old were asleep, when both were shot. The 6-year-old died.
Anytime a child dies from an act of gun violence. What does that do to our community? “Oh, I think it knocks the wind out of the whole community,” said Theresa Rulien, Child Guidance Center CEO.
Among those tragedies, was a surge of shootings in Jacksonville.
“The overall sense of violence and the norm to waking up to hearing about a shooting overnight. Yeah, I believe that in a lot of ways, we start to just accept it as the norm, when it is not,” said Rulien.
The shooting deaths of those children are still being investigated. No arrests have been made in either case. News4Jax was told the man shot in the incident involving the 6-year-old, was previously detained by the apartment’s security agency for trespassing and should not have been on the property.
We reached out to District 9 Jacksonville City Council Member Tyrona Clark-Murray who says there has been a steady decrease in violence at the apartments.
“I am deeply saddened by the non-residents who were responsible for injuring children and the death of a child. I am in contact with JSO and the apartment’s management to implement long-term solutions to violence such as this for Hollybrook and District Nine,” Said Clark-Murray.
Rulien says when tragedies like this occur you should pay extra attention to your kids.
“Just be mindful of what your children are doing, what they’re reading, what they’re seeing, what they’re doing online, who they’re meeting, who were meeting as well. The world is changing, unfortunately, in a lot of ways that we don’t have control over no matter how much we love our neighbors,” said. Rulien.