SILVERLEAF, Fla. — One man is dead and two others are in the hospital following a shooting at a construction site on Wednesday afternoon, authorities say. Deputies tracked down and arrested the suspect within minutes of the incident.
Action News Jax spoke with the girlfriend of one of the construction workers, who asked to remain anonymous. She said her boyfriend, who was at the site, filled her in on the chaotic events that led up to the shooting.
According to the St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office, deputies responded to reports of shots fired around 4:26 p.m. near the end of Johns Island Parkway, where crews are building a new road.
The anonymous girlfriend told Action News Jax that the argument may have started over comments about a coworker’s wife.
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“There was an argument where the guy was talking crap about the other guy’s wife and then he went to go confront him and that’s when the shots were fired,” she said.
She said her boyfriend called her immediately after the shooting to explain what happened.
“Two other people were hit and one of them is actually my boyfriend’s brother-in-law, so I know like he’s told me a lot, and he called me freaking out, and he was like they put a white sheet over him. They put a white sheet over him,” she said.
Deputies reported that one man was killed at the scene and two others were injured. The woman said her boyfriend later called again with an update on his relative.
“And then he called me back, probably like an hour later, and told me that his brother-in-law got hit in the leg,” she said.
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Investigators said witnesses who knew the suspect quickly called 911 and provided deputies with a description of the suspect’s vehicle, a partial license plate number, and the suspect’s identity. Deputies tracked down the vehicle and stopped it at a truck stop near State Road 206.
St. Johns County Sheriff Robert Hardwick praised both deputies and community members who reported what they saw.
“But also, too, we got people that are not going to tolerate that when they witnessed violent crime, they called the St. John’s County Sheriff because they know we’re gonna come and do the right thing and hold people accountable,” Sheriff Robert A. Hardwick said.
The sheriff’s office confirmed that the suspect and the victims all worked together on the road construction project.
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