JACKSONVILLE BEACH, Fla. – As the Jacksonville Beach Police Department investigates Sunday’s triple shootings that happened in Jacksonville Beach’s 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 in Jacksonville Billy 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 Monday’s news conference.
The police chief said the department’s intel found this would be a possible gathering of juveniles. So News4JAX asked:
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Did police contact the organizers of this event?
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If there was intel about possible juveniles drinking or boxing on the beach – illegally – did the agency explore a way to prevent it?
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Should the community have been informed of this event beforehand?
News4JAX also took a closer look at the video that the police released on its Facebook.
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.
In another video, it 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 coverage. It’s unclear where the video came from but it could have possibly 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.”
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