Two people were shot near a high school football game at Lonnie Miller Park in Northwest Jacksonville on Friday night, after a group that had been escorted out of the game returned and opened fire, according to the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office. A 20-year-old was struck in the shoulder and a 19-year-old girl was hit in the leg; both were taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
The shooting happened around 9 p.m. during a game between Young Kids in Motion Academy and Joshua Christian Academy, as reported by News4JAX. Investigators say two groups got into a dispute at the game, and one of those groups was escorted out. That group came back, and shots were fired shortly after their return. Two men described as being in their late teens to early 20s ran from the scene, and JSO is still searching for them.
Lonnie Miller Regional Park sits at 7689 Price Lane in the city's District 10, a municipal facility run by the City of Jacksonville rather than a school district property. Both Young Kids in Motion Academy, a VPK-through-12th-grade private school founded in 2016 by Principal Meltonia Wright to serve at-risk and underprivileged youth, and Joshua Christian Academy, a private Christian K-12 school that marked its 30th anniversary this month under Executive Director Lisa Harris, are private institutions that field their teams on that public park ground rather than at a school-owned stadium.
Investigators Say Dispute, Not Random Violence, Sparked Gunfire
According to JSO, the shooting stemmed from an ongoing dispute between the two groups involved, and the department says it poses no additional danger to the community or to the two participating schools. No arrests had been announced as of the report from the same account, and the motive behind the underlying conflict between the groups has not been detailed publicly.
Anyone with information or video is asked to contact JSO at 904-630-0500 or [email protected]. Tipsters can also reach out anonymously through Crime Stoppers at 1-866-845-TIPS, which per First Coast Crime Stoppers offers cash rewards up to $3,000 for tips leading to an arrest in felony cases across Duval County.
A Familiar Fear Along the Moncrief Corridor
Friday's shooting adds to a troubling pattern of gun violence tied to youth sports venues along the Moncrief Road corridor near Lonnie Miller Park. In December 2022, a drive-by shooting near the nearby Legends Center killed 13-year-old Prince Holland as he left football tryouts, a case Hoodline has previously covered. Community leaders have repeatedly called for more targeted violence prevention around Northside athletic venues, though it remains unclear whether any additional security measures will be required for private-school games held on city park fields.
Jacksonville has confronted football-related gun violence before. In August 2018, a shooting after a game outside Raines High School killed a 19-year-old man and wounded two students, prompting Duval County Public Schools to overhaul stadium security, moving high-attendance rivalry games to daylight hours and adding metal-detector wands at gates. Those reforms applied to public district facilities, but Friday's incident occurred at a municipal park hosting two private academies, where the same access controls and weapon screening are harder to enforce.
What Suspects Could Face Under Florida Law
Florida law carries steep penalties for gunfire connected to school sporting events and public parks alike. Under Florida Statute § 790.115, discharging a firearm at a school-sponsored athletic event is a third-degree felony punishable by up to five years in prison and a $5,000 fine. Separately, Florida Statute § 790.15 makes knowingly discharging a firearm in a public park a first-degree misdemeanor that can escalate to a third-degree felony if done recklessly in a way that endangers human life.
Because two people were struck and wounded, whoever is found responsible could also face charges under Florida Statute § 784.045, which classifies shooting and injuring another person with a firearm as aggravated battery with a deadly weapon, a second-degree felony punishable by up to 15 years in prison. It remains an open question whether the underlying dispute originated from a rivalry between the two schools or from an outside neighborhood conflict that simply followed the crowd to the game.
