CRIME

Separate Jacksonville shootings wound a suspect, bystander and 2 more

Guns also drawn in St. Augustine Waffle House robbery

Dan Scanlan
dscanlan@jacksonville.com
Police investigate the Wednesday shooting at Metro PCS on Sunbeam Road. [First Coast News]

Three shootings within eight hours in Jacksonville left one would-be armed robber shot in a Mandarin store, a bystander wounded in a drive-by and two others sent to a hospital, according to the Sheriff's Office.

Then a few hours before dawn Thursday, three gunmen robbed a Waffle House in St. Johns County, but no weapons were fired, that Sheriff's Office said.

The first gunfire was about 5:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Metro PCS in a shopping center at 5100 Sunbeam Road. An male in a mask walked in with a knife and demanded money from the employee, the police report said. The employee shot him twice, and he fled the store.

"He said the the guy tried to stab him over the counter, and he was going to kill him," Kut Kingz barbershop employee Brian Alverenga told Times-Union news partner First Coast News.

Alverenga said the Metro PCS employee ran down and banged on their window after the incident, saying he had shot someone. Police found the man lying in a pool of blood in the parking lot nearby, and he was taken into custody and to a hospital.

The second instance of gunfire erupted about 8:15 p.m. in the 1100 block of West 22nd. St., just north of Martin Luther King Jr. Parkway, police said. Someone did a drive-by shooting at a house from a gold Buick. One bystander was hit but it wasn't life threatening. No motive was known yet.

The last Jacksonville shooting was reported about 1 a.m. Thursday in the 7200 block of Lem Turner Road, heard by officers investigating an unrelated incident nearby, police said. The officers heard multiple gunshots coming from the Interstate 95 and Lem Turner area and found two men with gunshot wounds. Both were taken to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. The heavily redacted incident report described the male shooter as wearing a dark, hooded jacket and jeans. A vehicle also was hit with bullets.

Anyone with information in the Jacksonville cases can contact the Sheriff’s Office at (904) 630-0500 or leave an anonymous tip with First Coast Crime Stoppers at (866) 845-8477 (TIPS).

The St. Johns County gun-related incident occurred about 4 a.m. at the Waffle House at 219 Sandy Creek Parkway off County Road 210. Three men with guns came into the restaurant just west of I-95, but the Sheriff's Office had no more information available other than no injuries have been reported.

Dan Scanlan: (904) 359-4549