Residents on edge after Ciel Apartments murder, JSO arrests one

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — It’s been a 1 and 1/2 weeks since Mark Ott was shot and killed while riding his motorcycle into the Ciel Luxury Apartments parking lot on the Southside.

He leaves behind his fiancée and two kids.

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His family remembers him as a kind, hardworking man.

They’re urging the public to come forward with information on the man suspected of shooting and killing Ott.

JSO released a picture of the suspect in a white hoodie and light colored jeans on Tuesday.

Officers arrested Corey Simms Jr. for accessory after the fact on Monday. An arrest report said Simms was driving the car involved in the homicide.

As the days pass with no identification of the actual shooter, Ciel residents are frustrated.

“A lot of the community members here; they wanted to know what was Ciel going to do for future crime,” Ciel resident Shakira Young said.

Young said she caught the crime on her Nest video off her balcony. In the video you see two motorcycles driving into the parking lot. The victim then crashes into a car after being shot.

Moments after the shot, someone in a white shirt runs from the lot.

According to Simms’ arrest report, Ott died from a gunshot wound to his back.

Young said there have been brief emails sent out from the complex about the incident, and there was a safety meeting this Monday with a JSO officer.

“He stated that there was someone in custody. Now we know it was the driver that they were questioning,” Young said.

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However, she wants more to be done, including heightened security and a community information page.

We asked our law and safety expert Dale Carson if the complex is liable in this situation.

Carson has years of experience in law enforcement.

“The owner of the property doesn’t typically have a duty to protect against the intervention of some third party unknown to the actual owners of the property,” Carson said.

He also said the complex is not responsible for crime unless it’s a frequent occurrence.

Ott’s family said he was not a resident at Ciel and was seeing his friend home.

Family gave us this statement:

“Mark was an amazing, hard-working man. So kind and so loving. He leaves behind a fiancée of 8 years and two beautiful children who miss him deeply. We want the people found and the question to why they did this. We need Justice in order to heal. We are so broken from the loss.”

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