The Jacksonville Sheriff's Office said that, on 2nd February, 2017, Thursday afternoon, three teenagers were shot at an apartment building near the Arlington high school. No arrests have been made in the triple shooting incident, but the police said that they will be interviewing seven teenagers, including the three victims and four others, who have been detained for questioning.
About 1:40 p.m., the shooting took place on the property of the Azalea Ridge Apartments on Alderman Road, which is just behind the Lone Star High School, a charter school on the Lone Star Road.
While the officers were responding to the scene, they learned that two of the victims had already been taken to the hospital. One was in critical condition at UF Health and the other was treated and released, and was at the police headquarters being questioned.
While the police were processing the scene, officers found a car believed to have been involved in the shooting at nearby Arlington Eagle Apartments on the Alderman Road, where a foot pursuit ended with the capture of three people. The third victim was then taken to UF Health for treatment.
The Sheriff's Office Dive Team was called to search for evidence in the nearby retention pond, where the police believe that a gun was tossed.
JSO Lt. Rickie Valentine said, "There was more than one weapon. I don't know the calibers," adding that the investigators found multiple shells, proving that multiple shots had been fired.
According to Valentine, there are no indications about Thursday's shooting and was gang-related. But he added that their are several scenes within about a half-mile of the place, which were making the case very difficult to investigate.
Valentine said, “We’re being told a vehicle leaves the scene, that changes to two scenes. Then we got a third vehicle that’s now being said that was transporting a victim, well now that’s a third scene. Then subsequently we have a scene that was our fourth scene. So now got four scenes. That is manpower intensive."
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The News4Jax Crime and Safety Analyst Gil Smith agreed that, the multiple crime scenes make it harder for investigators to crack the case, but he also said that there is a silver lining.
Due to the police activity, Terry Parker High School, Arlington Middle School and the Parkwood Elementary School were placed on Code Red lockdown.
Valentine said that, it was unknown whether the triple shooting was connected to a fight among 15-20 high school students on Wednesday morning a couple blocks away at another apartment complex, which resulted in a lockdown of same schools.
There were witness reports of the shots fired in Wednesday's incident, but there were no injuries, and JSO evidence technicians could not locate any shell casings.
A witness at the shootings told News4Jax that, the gunman had been waiting for the victim since 8:30 a.m. and he fired about nine shots while a carload of people waiting in a car nearby egged him on. She said she saw the shooter standing over one of the victims on the ground while firing multiple gunshots at him.
The woman said she yelled, "Please stop. Don't kill him," and then he pointed the gun at her.
The witness of Thursday's shooting said she believed that it was connected to the Wednesday's fight.
Anyone with the information is asked to call the Sheriff's Office at 904-630-0500 or email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. To remain anonymous, contact the Crime Stoppers at 1-866-845-TIPS
By Mrudula.
