JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — It's been a whole year since a 24-year-old shooter took the lives of two people and injured 11 people during a gaming tournament at the Jacksonville Landing.
Newly released documents by the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office detail not only the accounts of witnesses and victims but also reveal the months of follow-up detective work as police tried to figure out what led the 24-year-old to pull the trigger.
PHOTO GALLERY: Victims of Jacksonville Landing shooting
New documents detail the fear and horror people inside the Jacksonville Landing experienced exactly a year ago.
— Brittney Donovan (@brittneyANjax) August 26, 2019
One victim told police he and another person were planning to keep the door where they were hiding blocked with their bodies, knowing they might get hit. pic.twitter.com/s1ZrK2BREB
Our news partner, WOKV, dug through more than 100 pages of documents on the investigation provided by the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office.
In the documents, police speak with one witness who admitted they didn’t think the shooting was Katz’s recent loss in the tournament which eliminated him. The witness who spoke with JSO says they had beaten Katz in the tournament, and if the shooting was a result of the loss, the witness believes they would have been shot. JSO notes the witness was not shot or targeted.
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In another statement, officers spoke with another witness who claimed to know Katz for years from the Madden gaming community. This person told police he thought Katz had targeted Elijah Clayton, who was one of the two men who died. According to the documents, the person told police Clayton had picked on Katz who he labeled as “socially awkward.”
Beyond different accounts of what happened during the shooting and who saw what, there were other storylines tucked away in the documents.
Cox Media Group
