Grandmother killed in shooting outside Jacksonville sports bar

A Jacksonville grandmother was killed in cold blood as she sat inside a car that was riddled with bullets Thursday night. The other passenger is fighting to survive.

Jennifer Nelson, mother of four and grandmother to five, was shot and killed outside Kelly’s Place.

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"It's just a very sad situation for my family, for this neighborhood, for her children, for her grandchildren," said Nelson's cousin Kendra Bryant.

Another woman is in the hospital after the car she and Nelson were in was shot multiple times in the parking lot Thursday night.

"It's a lot of crime in this area, but my family has been in this neighborhood for a very long time so everyone around here knows Jennifer," Bryant said.

Action News Jax used the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office crime map and found that since the beginning of the year, there have been three homicides, 27 assaults and 23 thefts within a half-mile radius of the bar.

This is Councilman Garrett Dennis’ district, and he said the bar could possibly be a nuisance.

"I think so with those statistics, but I don't just want to say that it's the club, we need to look at the entire area," Dennis said.

A witness told Action News Jax that he saw what looked like a Dodge Charger pull up, then two people with dreadlocks or braids got out of the car and fired multiple shots at a car before driving off.

Now, Bryant has a message for the suspects who took her cousin’s life.

"You ruined her children's lives, her grandchildren’s lives. Just turn yourself in," Bryant said.

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Dennis recently started a New Town success zone, where they meet monthly to clean up the area.

"It's so important for us to not just do policing, but to do intervention and organize our citizens that live in the area," Dennis said.

But he said this area didn’t go downhill overnight, and it won’t be a quick fix.

"It's been years of neglect, it’s been years of not receiving the services that other areas might have received," Dennis said.

For Nelson’s family, this is the second daughter that was found dead on Kings Road.

"This is the second child she lost to violence," Bryant said.

Dennis also said that crime is a problem throughout the city and not just in the New Town area.

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