A Friday night high school football game in Jacksonville turned into a shooting scene after a dispute between two groups ended with gunfire near Lonnie Miller Park. Two people were hit and taken to the hospital, and police are now looking for two men they believe ran from the scene after the shots were fired.
The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office said the shooting happened around 9 p.m. during the game between Young Kids in Motion Academy and Joshua Christian Academy. Investigators said one group was escorted out and later returned, and the shooting broke out after that return.
The people hurt were a 19-year-old girl, who was struck in the leg, and a 20-year-old, who was hit in the shoulder. Police said both injuries were non-life-threatening, but the violence cut through a public event that was supposed to be about football, not a call for emergency crews.
That is why the search for answers is now focused on how a sideline dispute turned into gunfire. JSO said the shooting stems from an ongoing dispute between the two groups, but investigators have not said what first set them off at the game. What they have said is enough to keep the case active: two men, believed to be in their late teens to early 20s, are being sought after fleeing the scene.
Police also said there is no additional danger to the community or to the two schools that took part in the game. Even so, the investigation is still open, and the question that matters most now is whether the two men can be found before another argument follows the same path.
