A woman in her early 50s was shot in the left ankle early Tuesday after she heard an argument turn violent near the 8200 block of 118th Street on Jacksonville's Westside. She had been walking in the area when she heard people arguing in the yard of a home she did not recognize, then heard gunshots ring out as she tried to get away.
According to First Coast News, the woman felt a sharp pain in her foot while running and quickly realized she had been struck. She did not see who was arguing in the yard and was unable to give investigators any possible suspect information, leaving detectives with a thin trail to follow as they try to piece together what happened before the shots were fired.
Her injury was described as non-life-threatening, and a family member drove her to a local hospital rather than waiting for an ambulance. Jacksonville Sheriff's Office officers responded to the scene on 118th Street, where the investigation is now centered on an argument whose participants remain unidentified.
Detectives Work the Scene With Few Leads
JSO's crime scene detectives processed the area for physical evidence, while investigators from the robbery and violent crime unit handled witness interviews and canvassed the neighborhood for surveillance footage that might show who was involved in the altercation. Those same detectives are now following up on investigative leads generated from that initial canvass, and the woman was unable to provide possible suspect information.
Despite the unanswered questions about who fired the shots, JSO believes the shooting was an isolated incident rather than part of a broader pattern of violence in the area. The case remains open, and anyone with information is asked to call JSO's non-emergency line at 904-630-0500 or reach Crime Stoppers anonymously at 1-866-845-TIPS.
Latest in a String of Westside Shootings
The shooting adds to a string of gun violence incidents that have rattled Jacksonville's Westside in recent months. In July, a woman was killed and three other people were hurt in what News4JAX described as a quadruple shooting in a Westside neighborhood. Weeks later, a 17-year-old and three young adults were injured in another weekend shooting in the same part of the city, the station reported.
More recently, a teenager was wounded in a separate West Jacksonville shooting in which nine rounds were detected, and a man was hurt in an October shooting on Texas Street, also on the Westside. Just days before the 118th Street shooting, a man was found fatally shot at a house on West 13th Street, with JSO saying everyone involved in that case had been accounted for.
For now, the woman shot while fleeing the 118th Street argument is hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries, and investigators are still trying to determine who was arguing in that yard and why shots were fired at all.
