This morning at 8:30, Jacksonville Sheriff's Office responded to a call about a suspicious package at River City Marketplace.
The shopping mall on the Northside near the airport was roped off along City Center Boulevard from the corner of Bed Bath & Beyond on the north end to Boston’s Restaurant & Sports Bar on the south.
Brandon Bullard, a street-sweeper driver for Azor Maintenance Group, said over the phone he discovered a garbage bag with a “bunch of bombs” in it at 8:14 a.m. He said his employee called him to pick up the bag with his truck, and he threw it in the back without knowing what was inside.
Bullard said after he turned around, he noticed bullets on the ground. That’s when he says he got out of the truck, opened the bag and found it was full of "grenades, mortars, M18s, smoke bombs and gas masks.”
Jacksonville Sheriff's Office Lt. Victor Pacheco said a “military-grade device" was found by the maintenance crew at River City Marketplace. Pacheco said JSO cleared the area around the device and asked customers to shelter in place. Pacheco said several devices were found, but only "one device of main concern.”
Pacheco said the JSO Bomb Squad "rendered the device safe and evacuated it from the scene.”
