Bullet hole found in Mayor Lenny Curry’s City Hall office

JACKSONVILLE, Fla — A bullet hole was found in Mayor Lenny Curry’s City Hall office Monday after the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office said an employee spotted shell casings in James Weldon Johnson Park.

The City said the Mayor’s desk is just on the other side of the bullet hole, which shattered the glass of his fourth-floor office.

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According to a police report, a city employee spotted a shell casing around 11 a.m. Monday. Officers found a total of four casings, then JSO said they got a call from City Hall about a bullet hole.

A representative said JSO does not believe it is targeted because of the number of shell casings discovered compared to bullet holes.

A spokesperson said Mayor Curry was in the office Monday. Hours after the bullet hole was spotted, he held a planned press conference about Jacksonville’s violence after a 13-year-old was killed Saturday night.

Read: Jacksonville sheriff lays out steps to combat violence after 13-year-old killed in drive-by shooting

On Tuesday, Action News Jax spotted a JSO cruiser outside the Mayor’s house, which his office said is not part of his typical security detail. His office could not comment further at this time except to say, “it appreciates the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office’s ongoing investigation.”

“We have shootings that now are literally hitting home. Now whether that bullet was deliberate or a stray — the problem is stray bullets have ways of finding targets,” Council Member Matt Carlucci, representing At-Large Group 4, said. “This is one of the issues we’re working on the hardest. So yeah, it hits home.”

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Action News Jax Law & Safety Expert Dale Carson, with experience as a former Miami police officer, said JSO is likely sifting through ballistics, security camera video, and search for other bullet holes.

“Typically in a random shooting — where that window is not the target, you’re going to find some evidence of concrete or masonry missing. Or a hole in another window,” he said. “I know that today everyone wants a quick simple solution. But there’s isn’t one in a case like this because it takes time. The laboratory has to do all this analysis. And in Jacksonville and other major cities — they have more important work to be doing than something that could be arbitrary.”

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JSO said November was the last time there was a shooting around James Weldon Johnson Park. Anyone with information about this shooting is asked to call police.

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