JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – As The Local Station, News4JAX works daily to ensure that the communities across Northeast Florida and Southeast Georgia are well-informed about everything that impacts them — and 2024 was no exception.
From a destructive fire at a luxury apartment complex in downtown Jacksonville to the approval of the “Stadium of the Future,” this year brought dozens of significant events that impacted our communities.
Here is a compilation of some of the biggest and most-read stories of the year (in no particular order).
The ‘Stadium of the Future’: From plan to reality
After years of discussions and planning, the new Jaguars stadium went from a proposal to a reality.
In October, NFL owners voted unanimously to approve the stadium deal between the Jaguars and the City of Jacksonville, clearing the way for the “Stadium of the Future” to be built.
The $1.4 billion deal is the largest in Jacksonville’s history and includes $775 million in money put up by the city. Jaguars owner Shad Khan will pick up the remainder, plus any additional cost overruns. The deal includes a 30-year lease to keep the Jacksonville Jaguars in the city long-term and funds the transformative stadium renovation set to be completed in 2028.
But a big part of the deal goes beyond the stadium and into the community, especially the Eastside.
The agreement includes:
- $40 million for the Eastside over seven years
- $40 million for the county over 15 years
- $1 million for each of the 14 council districts
Construction is scheduled to begin in 2025.
Jacksonville rapper Julio Foolio killed in Tampa
Charles Jones, a controversial Jacksonville rapper who went by the name of “Julio Foolio,” was celebrating his 26th birthday in late June when he was shot and killed in Tampa.
A month later, police announced the arrest of three out of five suspects connected to the ambush attack. A couple of days later, a fourth suspect was arrested.
Surveillance footage released by police showed the suspects stalking Jones. At one point, the shooters got out of a car parked across the street from the hotel where Jones was staying. Then they can be seen wearing all black while sneaking around the parking lot before firing multiple shots at the car Jones was riding in.
At the time of this publication, the fifth suspect, identified as Davion Murphy, was still at large.
Arrests of JSO employees
This year, 16 employees with the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office were arrested.
One of the employees arrested was Christopher Barr, a former police officer who pleaded guilty to using protected databases while he was an employee to access and disseminate law enforcement information to unauthorized individuals whom Sheriff T.K Waters referred to as “criminals in our community.”
In September, former officer Brian Housend was arrested in Nassau County and accused of multiple charges, including harassing and threatening a woman whom he was once in a relationship with. The Nassau County Sheriff’s Office, the arresting agency, said Housend is accused of making repeated threats toward the woman who contacted investigators because she feared for her life.
RELATED | JSO officer facing life in prison received written reprimands after complaints from agency employees
In late November, Josue Garriga, a former member of the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office Gang Unit who pleaded guilty in July to enticement of a minor to engage in unlawful sexual activity, was sentenced to more than 24 years in federal prison.
The judge said Garriga used his law enforcement resources to commit the crimes, adding that the victim was so mentally hurt that she tried to kill herself.
Man who stabbed ex-girlfriend, mom outside Ponte Vedra Beach restaurant sentenced to life
Spencer Pearson, who stabbed his ex-girlfriend 17 times outside of a Ponte Vedra Beach restaurant in June 2023, was sentenced to life in prison in November.
The attack left then-17-year-old Madison Schemitz partially paralyzed, but her remarkable recovery had her walking across the stage at her graduation just under a year later.
In December, Schemitz gave her first in-depth interview to News4JAX. Click here to watch.
How the FBI tracked down one of Jacksonville’s biggest suspected drug dealers
This was our most-read story of 2024, with nearly 382,000 pageviews.
For months, FBI agents and members of the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office gang unit watched Paul Anderson, either by camping out in a car outside his suspected Westside stash house or on a live-stream video camera mounted to a pole in the parking lot. They also tracked his phone. News4JAX wrote a story on what they saw and what led to federal charges against Anderson.
In November, Anderson was sentenced to 21 years and 10 months on drug charges.
Off-duty JSO corrections officer killed at Northside truck stop
Off-duty JSO Corrections Officer Brad McNew was shot and killed after he tried to intervene in a violent dispute between a man and a woman at a truck station on Northside in early October.
McNew’s murder prompted a national manhunt for the suspect, who was arrested the next day in Georgia. The suspect was identified as 29-year-old man Demaurea Grant.
Those who knew Officer McNew, who worked for JSO for 24 years, said he was a devoted husband, father, and friend.
A destructive fire at a luxury apartment complex
A brand-new apartment building that was still under construction in downtown Jacksonville was destroyed in a massive blaze in late January.
More than 100 firefighters worked around the clock to extinguish the fire at the RISE Doro Apartments. City engineers determined the wood-framed portions of the building needed to be demolished after it was found to be unstable.
The developer has plans to rebuild.
Hurricane Helene & Milton
This year’s hurricane season was unique for several reasons: it featured the earliest-ever Category 5 hurricane, multiple storms that reshaped Florida’s landscape, and an unusually intense late-season surge.
Hurricane Helene
For Florida, Hurricane Helene was the most destructive storm of the season.
On Sept. 26, Helene struck the Sunshine State as a Category 4 hurricane, with 7 feet of storm surge tearing through neighborhoods that were never in the path. The adjacent surge working up the west coast caused flooding along most barrier islands.
Hurricane Milton
As Floridians were still recovering from Helene, Hurricane Milton arrived just two weeks later.
Making landfall in Siesta Key as a Category 3 hurricane, Milton packed 100+ mph winds in St. Petersburg. What made Milton worse than Helene for Florida was the sheer amount of rain it produced. Over 17 inches fell in parts of Pinellas and Hillsborough counties across west Florida.
Incredible video shows tornado lifting truck on Southside
In late June, a confirmed tornado sent a pick-up truck flying across Beach Boulevard as strong storms moved across the city’s Southside.
The National Weather Service said an EF-1 tornado ripped through Jacksonville’s southside with winds reaching 100 mph.
Incredible video of the dramatic scene was captured by Hunter Luken and others and shared with News4JAX. Click here to watch the viral video.
A powerful warning against having a Medicare Advantage plan
This was our second most-read story of the year, with a total of 302,498 pageviews.
After receiving a life-changing cancer diagnosis this summer, Mike Harper, who was in the insurance business for more than five decades, made it his dying wish to warn seniors against having a Medicare Advantage plan and encourage them to take open enrollment seriously.
“I want them to know they have options,” Harper said. “I want them to get educated about these options and not get sucked into the free medical, dental, free, free vision. I mean, that’s nice. That’s a nice benefit. But what’s it really worth?”
Harper passed away in early December.