Election-year rhetoric over public safety is having little effect on Jacksonville’s streets as another teen fell prey to shooting violence Monday, the city’s sixth 13- to 19-year-old killed this year.
Only days after Mayor Lenny Curry committed to begin a new Cure Violence program that relies on community members working to stop violence before it happens, an unidentified boy was shot at the Hilltop Village Apartments at 1646 W. 45th St., according to the Sheriff’s Office.
Officers responded to the scene in the Moncrief community just before 3 p.m. after someone made a 911 call saying there was a dead body, Sgt. Mark Musser said.
“When officers arrived they located a victim lying in one of the parking lot areas of the complex suffering from at least one gunshot,” he said.
Paramedics were called and pronounced the victim dead. The young man is believed to be about 16, Musser said.
Detectives were canvassing the apartment complex to find possible witnesses. Musser said there are security cameras but apparently inoperative.
The boy also was the city’s 31st homicide this year as compared to 18 at the same time in 2018, a year that saw a total of 125 homicides. Fifteen teens were among those homicides, according to Times-Union records.
A longer version of this story that includes an interview with Ben Frazier, president of The Northside Coalition of Jacksonville, is at Jacksonville.com.
