Crime scene tape stretched across the entire parking lot of a WoodSpring Suites extended-stay hotel on Beach Boulevard in Jacksonville early Tuesday after police responded to a report of a person shot. Several Jacksonville Sheriff's Office cruisers and crime scene vans lined the property as investigators worked the scene, with the extent of any injuries and what led to the shooting still unclear.
The Jacksonville Sheriff's Office responded to the reported shooting near the hotel on Beach Boulevard, according to Action News Jax, which reported the hotel's entire lot had been cordoned off with tape as multiple police units and crime vans gathered on scene. The outlet said it was still investigating both the severity of any injuries and what circumstances led up to the gunfire, and it planned to send a crew to the area and update the story as more information becomes available.
The hotel sits at 3425 Saland Way, a 105-room extended-stay property with in-room kitchenettes that caters to long-term residents and budget travelers, per property listings on Expedia. WoodSpring Suites traces its roots to a chain founded as Value Place in 2003 before rebranding in 2015 and being acquired by Choice Hotels International in 2018 for roughly $231 million, according to Choice Hotels International's own announcement of the deal. By late 2024, Choice Hotels had grown the WoodSpring Suites brand to more than 500 hotels nationwide.
A Corridor With a Recent History of Gunfire
This is not the first time police have responded to gunfire along the busy Beach Boulevard corridor in recent months. On August 14, JSO responded to a shooting in a retail parking lot near Kernan Boulevard South that left a young man in critical condition after being shot multiple times, as Hoodline previously reported. That intersection sits just east of the WoodSpring Suites location.
In March, First Coast News reported another non-fatal shooting along the same roadway after a victim showed up on his own at a Jacksonville hospital around 3 a.m. with a gunshot wound to the leg. And in July 2025, JSO officers fatally shot 71-year-old Lawrence Sullivan along Beach Boulevard near I-295 after a traffic crash in which the driver brandished a handgun and threatened self-harm, according to the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office, which later released bodycam footage of that incident following an internal review.
Citywide Numbers Show a Different Trend
Despite the repeated flashpoints along Beach Boulevard, broader crime data suggests Jacksonville is trending in a safer direction overall. Jacksonville Sheriff's Office open data reported through late August showed 43 total homicides citywide in 2026, including 38 murders, putting the city on pace for one of its lowest annual homicide totals in years, Hoodline has reported. The WoodSpring Suites hotel also falls within JSO Patrol District 3, where District Commander Petena Tillman told a community meeting in June that overall crime in the district was down 1.2% year-over-year, even as auto burglaries spiked locally.
Commercial listings note that the hotel sits close to a police substation and near Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department Station 30, a proximity that can factor into emergency response times. Under Florida Statute § 790.15, knowingly discharging a firearm in a public place or over occupied premises is a first-degree misdemeanor punishable by up to 12 months in jail, with penalties escalating to a felony if the gunfire involves a vehicle. It remains unknown who was involved in Tuesday's shooting, whether anyone was struck, or what sparked the incident, and JSO's investigation continues.
