Businesses evacuate after SWAT call at Baymeadows shopping plaza

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A SWAT situation in the Deerwood Village Shopping Center had some nearby businesses evacuating this afternoon.

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In a video only on Action News Jax, you can see police drawing their weapons to arrest the suspect right outside State Farm off Baymeadows Road.

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Scramblers is a brunch restaurant on the other side of State Farm, and the manager at the time, Rachel Taylor, said they were told to leave while police worked to get the situation under control.

“Terrifying, honestly,” Taylor said.

Some shoppers and business owners had quite a scare on Monday. Sources tell Action News Jax that around 1 p.m., police were called to State Farm about a dangerous man threatening to hurt people inside.

“They told us basically that a guy comes into the state farm and threatened the girls working there and then barricaded himself in,” Taylor said.

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Taylor said police told her they had to temporarily shut down, and customers were also asked to leave.

“They eventually evacuated us out,” Taylor said. “So that in case they had to shoot, it wouldn’t like, somehow ricochet into us. So yeah, we had to like to stop all business.

Our sources say this man was armed with a butcher knife when he locked himself inside a room at the State Farm office while people were still inside. The SWAT, K-9, and drone units were called in to help.

“You heard a bull horn -- I couldn’t hear what they were saying, but you could hear it,” Straight Razor Barbershop owner Robert Natalie said.

Robert Natalie has worked at this location in the shopping center for over 20 years, and he says this is unusual.

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“Never thought in a million years that something like that would happen in this area,” Natalie said. “Cause nothing ever happens like that around here.”

Our sources say as SWAT officers were approaching the suspect, he surrendered.

In the video only on Action News Jax, you can see the officers detaining the suspect with their weapons drawn. The suspect is now said to be in custody.

Taylor says it all happened within about an hour and a half.

“Definitely anxious,” Taylor said. “I feel like I still kind of have a pit in my stomach, even though everything’s like super resolved now.”

Scramblers wasn’t the only business affected. Other restaurants and business told Action News Jax they had to shut down temporarily as well.

Action News Jax has reached out to JSO for more information on what happened, and we are still waiting to hear back.

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