Incident Report: Dollar General, Jacksonville FL
Jacksonville, FL | August 26, 2023
On Saturday afternoon, a 21-year-old man drove onto the campus of Edward Waters University, Florida’s first historically Black college. He was immediately approached by campus security and left the area. The campus officer noticed he was wearing a tactical vest and alerted Jacksonville Police.
After driving to a nearby shopping center, he got out of his car with a rifle and started shooting at a person inside a vehicle in front of a Dollar General store at 1:08 p.m. Customers inside heard gunshots and fled out the back of the store.
At 1:10 p.m., two unsuspecting customers walked into the store and were both killed.
For the next nine minutes, the shooter texted and called his parents to tell them where to find several manifestos.
At 1:19 p.m., 11 minutes after the first shots were fired, police arrived and the shooter committed suicide before they found him.
All three victims he killed were Black and racially targeted. The manifestos, which Jacksonville’s sheriff described as the “diary of a madman,” explained that the attack was racially motivated.
“To plainly put, this shooting was racially motivated and he hated Black people,” Waters said. “This is a dark day in Jacksonville. Any loss of life is tragic, but the hate that motivated the shooter’s killing spree adds an additional layer of heartbreak.”
—- Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters
When the shooter stepped out of his vehicle with a rifle, the gun was clearly visible on the store’s CCTV camera.
Within 3–5 seconds, ZeroEyes visual AI gun detection technology—which integrates with any CCTV system—can provide images and the location of a firearm directly to 911 operators and police.
When the shooter entered the store, a second CCTV camera recorded him firing a rifle. When such activity can be observed on camera in real time, it informs police that this is a deliberate and ongoing attack.
By the time police can respond to suspicious person calls, the person has often already moved to another location. Should nearby incidents arise, having the ability to identify suspects in real time can save minutes that matter.
Obtaining better situational awareness via images and the location of a shooter can potentially save lives and direct police to scenes quickly enough to arrive before situations worsen.
Each stage of a mass shooting or active shooter incident has its own set of risks and vulnerabilities, therefore requiring different types of solutions.
Some of the most common solutions that leaders look to for active shooter prevention include metal detectors, door locks, or barricades. These measures can be helpful, but it’s critical to understand that they do not address all five stages of a mass shooting. In fact, most security measures, like the examples aforementioned, only address the Active Stage of a mass shooting—and in some cases, could even potentially put the people they are trying to protect at greater risk.
Read more about the five stages of a mass shooting here.
ZeroEyes delivers a proactive, human-verified, visual gun detection and situational awareness solution that integrates into existing digital security cameras.
Providing situational awareness can reduce response times… ultimately saving lives.