On Saturday, three individuals, including a 3-year-old, were killed in a shooting at an apartment complex in Jacksonville, Florida. The incident may have been related to the selling of a dog.
During a press conference on Sunday, J.D. Stronko, the Assistant Chief, said that officers were summoned to an apartment complex in the 8800 block of A C Skinner Parkway after residents reported hearing gunshots. The police found five victims when they arrived: four people and a child who had “gone to the apartments, possibly to arrange the private sale of a dog,” as Stronko put it.
He said for reasons they did not know at the time, a confrontation ensued in a breezeway between two of the apartment buildings, leading to four of the five victims being shot. Three people who were shot have died, including the three-year-old who accompanied them on the trip.
Stronko refused to reveal the nature of the victims’ connection, citing Marsy’s Law.
Witnesses saw black males fleeing the area and hopping into what they thought was a black Sedan. Stronko called it “minimal suspect information at this time.”
The child’s name was Kae’lynn Marie Matthews.
According to her grandmother, Matthews was not a resident of the apartment building where the shooting occurred. The grandmother said she liked school, and her favorite activity was hide and seek.
A resident named Rachel told reporters that she “was laying in bed and heard the pop, pop, pop.” There were maybe five or six gunshots, and then I heard yelling.
I was terrified for them, she confessed. She said she didn’t think anything like that would ever happen. The witness said even if you’re living in a relatively unsafe area of Jacksonville, you probably haven’t given much thought to the possibility that a gunfight will break out just outside your front door.
Rachel told the media, “My prayers go out to the families.” “It’s very tragic.”
