JACKSONVILLE BEACH, Fla. – Jacksonville Beach is getting national attention following Sunday night’s shootings at the busy downtown bar district.
Earlier this month, Gov. Ron DeSantis increased law enforcement personnel and assets across the state to places like Miami Beach, Daytona Beach and Panama City Beach, but not Jacksonville Beach.
“We welcome people to come and have a good time. What we don’t welcome is criminal activity,” DeSantis said.
Sunday night people were seen running away from what sounded like gunshots in the background. One person was killed, and three others were shot in three separate shootings.
National media has been covering the chaos.
“Quite frankly I’m pissed off,” Jacksonville Beach Police Chief Gene Paul Smith said during a press conference Monday.
Smith said the roads were packed with people from the Players Championship, St. Patrick’s Day celebrations, spring break, and a regular Sunday beach crowd.
Jacksonville Beach Mayor Christine Hoffman said the three shootings happening on a busy holiday weekend that coincided with the end of The Players Championship placed Jacksonville Beach in the international spotlight.
“We are under a bit of a microscope out here because we do not have incidents like that so we’re getting a lot more attention than maybe other areas would,” Hoffman said. “Statistically we are a very safe community.”
Police intel for Sunday started with a flyer posted early last week promoting “Drunk Day at the Beach 2.” However, there are no direct ties to the flyer’s event.
“Anywhere from 250 to 400 juveniles in their late teens arrived at that location. Because of the intelligence information we proactively had officers assigned to this group. This group engaged in boxing matches, fights, and other incidents and Jacksonville Beach Police Department had to take action and disperse the crowd. When the crowd was dispersed, that’s when the shootings happened,” Smith said.
Shots were fired at three different spots, and police responded in seconds.
“The shootings, unfortunately, cannot be prevented, just by the mere fact that law enforcement may know that there’s going to be a gathering of people in a particular area... if law enforcement would be that effective, we would have very few shootings in the United States,” Criminologist Alex Del Carmen said. “What I think helps when law enforcement knows of a certain situation, or at least a gathering of people, is that they will likely be on site.”
MORE | Timeline of St. Patrick’s Day shootings in Jacksonville Beach
The event was advertised on social media but doesn’t appear to be a permitted event.
Back in 2021, the Orange Crush Festival moved from Tybee Island to Jacksonville Beach.
The police treated the event like the 4th of July with extra officers, and they expressed concerns about the event being unorganized because it wasn’t permitted.
News4JAX has no reports of incidents associated with Orange Crush.
Del Carmen said events are permitted through the city that could make a difference when it comes to ensuring public safety.
“It gives law enforcement with concrete information, they can plan accordingly,” Del Carmen said. “So it becomes a lot more complicated and the liability becomes that much greater. Hence the reason why many cities have this requirement of asking for permission whenever any event takes place, you know, in a public area.”
Chief Smith said they had no solid intelligence of receiving overflow from other cities.
Every beach authority faces the same dilemma of dealing with an influx of people.
Police were able to respond in seconds, but the chief himself said they can’t stop everything — that’s even with every cop on the corner.
But he said they will redouble their efforts to keep the city safe.