JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Jacksonville police are investigating a deadly triple shooting that led to a crash early Monday morning in the New Town neighborhood.
Through ShotSpotter technology, officers were alerted about 12:14 a.m. to multiple shots fired outside the Checkers restaurant on Kings Road near West Fifth Street. When officers arrived, they found two men had been shot. They directed officers to a third man, who had been shot, in the back seat of a car that crashed on Whitman Street.
Investigators believe all three men were in the vehicle at the time of the shooting. They are all between the ages of 17-20 years old and the person who died was 17.
First responders took the three men to a hospital. The man found inside the car did not survive his injuries.
A man told News4Jax that he was nearby when the shooting happened and he ducked when he heard about six rounds being fired off.
"It's not safe around here," said Warren Goden, who works at Kings Road Tire Shop. "It's not safe out here."
A woman who has lived in the New Town area for 20 years said she called on this morning's shooting, as well as many others over the years.
"At least 10," Betty Broughton said.
But she said the "see something, say something" method police encourage isn't always so helpful.
"I call, they come, sometimes they come, they come when they get ready. They tell you to get involved, but when you get involved, they take their time to come," Broughton said.
It was the first of two deadly shootings within hours that officers responded to early Monday morning.
Just after 2 a.m., the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office was called to another shooting in the Paxon neighborhood, where a security guard was shot and killed during an arcade room robbery.
WATCH: Jacksonville police investigating 2 deadly shootings Monday morning
As of Monday afternoon, eleven people had been shot, two fatally, in Jacksonville in less than 72 hours. A director for the Cure Violence program told News4Jax by phone on Monday that finding viable solutions to the city's violence is a marathon, not a sprint, and the organization is working on ways to mediate conflicts and prevent retaliatory violence.
Broughton said she believes the triple shooting was retaliation for previous violence in the area.
"It's wrong. It's sad, you know, somebody's mother is waking up this morning mourning the loss of their child," she said. "I think it was retaliation you know because they're going to come back and get you or whatever."
