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Alcohol, speed suspected in crash that killed 22-year-old in Jacksonville Beach, police say

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Charges are pending after a pedestrian was hit and killed in Jacksonville Beach late Thursday night.

Jacksonville Beach police say a suspected drunken driver hit and killed a 22-year-old man just before midnight Thursday.

Emily Hoffman lives near the scene of the crash on 2nd Street North and says she ran outside when she heard a loud noise.

She tells Action News Jax reporter Ryan Nelson she was with the victim’s friend at the scene of the crash when they found 22-year-old Bryn Turner’s body lying on 2nd street. Turner is from South Carolina.

“I’ll never get that image out of my mind,” said Hoffman. “Never.”

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Police say Turner was hit just north of the 7th Avenue North and 2nd Street North intersection.

They tell us his body came to a final resting place a few hundred feet south of that intersection.

Action News Jax obtained a neighbor’s home surveillance video of the driver speeding southbound on 2nd Street after hitting and killing Turner.

In the video, you can see the driver slamming into trash cans and taking down a stop sign as he continues driving southbound at a high rate of speed.

Officers say he went on to hit a palm tree along 2nd Street North before finally stopping near the 2nd Street North and 5th Avenue North intersection.

Police tell Nelson the suspected drunken driver is Joshua Lamar Lovingood, 31, of Jacksonville.

Investigators say he was not arrested at the scene of Thursday night’s crash and was allowed to leave.

They say Lovingood provided a blood sample, which will be tested at an Florida Department of Law Enforcement lab, and charges are pending the outcome of the test.

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Action News Jax searched Duval County records and learned Lovingood was arrested and charged with DUI in both 2015 and 2018.

Records show his 2018 charges were dropped. Nelson went to Lovingood’s listed address to hear his side of the story.

A woman who answered the door said Lovingood wasn’t home and did not want to comment. Hoffman said she is praying for the victim’s mother.

“That child is gone forever,” she said. “She had those times and she had 22 years, and now he’s gone because of somebody’s stupidity.”