JACKSONVILLE BEACH, Fla. – As the Jacksonville Beach Police Department investigates Sunday’s three shootings in the downtown bar district, News4JAX is looking into how police say this situation possibly started.
Police said they received information about a party called “Drunk Day at the Beach 2″ being thrown. The flyer prompting the party started circulating last week.
“Because of the intelligence information we proactively had officers assigned to this group. This group engaged in boxing matches, fights and other incidents and the Jacksonville Beach Police Department had to take action and disperse the crowd. When the crowd was dispersed, that’s when the shootings happened,” JBPD Chief Gene Paul Smith said at a news conference Monday.
Sargent Tonya Tator clarified to News4JAX that Smith is not saying the people in the video are directly connected to the shootings.
“No that is not what the chief way saying,” Tator said. “Obviously, a criminal element was present at or near the gathering and we are working to determine the cause of each shooting.”
The police chief said the department’s intel found this would be a possible gathering of juveniles. Tator said they did not contact the organizers of the event at the time of publishing this article.
“As of this time, we have not contacted them,” Tator said.
Tator also said they took measures to prevent illegal activity on the beach.
“Yes, the agency took measures to prevent illegal activities such as drinking in public, underage drinking, drug usage, and affrays,” Tator said.
Tator added that there was nothing that warranted a community notification about the event.
“There was no intelligence that created a concern for public safety that would warrant a public or community notification,” Tator said.
News4JAX also took a closer look at the video that police released on social media.
In one video, you can see people doing what’s called an “Oklahoma Drill” or a football practice technique, where two people try and tackle the other person. It was not a fight. It’s unclear around what time this was happening.
Another video shows a golf cart rushing into a crowd. According to the timestamp at the top of the video, if the time is correct, this happened around 5:38 p.m. -- two hours before police said the first shooting happened. Then, the video shows people start running away.
The next video is another angle of people scattering on the beach. It’s still unclear what time this happened. You can also see police cruisers on the sand.
The last video shows people running as if they were seeking cover. It’s unclear where the video came from but it could possibly have been captured around 8 p.m.
Smith said the shootings happened after the people dispersed, but it’s hard to pinpoint if the people in the videos were involved in the shootings, especially since those videos do not have timestamps.
It’s unclear how police made the connection to those gatherings caught on video and each of the three shootings.
One of the promoters of the event on the beach reached out to News4JAX, saying, in part, “The beach event was definitely just for good vibes and for everyone to start their Spring Break off correct. Come to the beach, talk to some friends, enjoy the music, etc…. No matter what event we have, safety is our biggest concern. The incidents that happened were uncontrollable and wasn’t done because of us and the event.”