Five or six shots were reported in the area of East Booe Street and South Cherry Street in South Bunnell just before 12:30 p.m. today, leaving behind an abandoned bicycle in the road, a bag of pot and shell casings, but no apparent injuries.
The location is within a block of South Cherry Street, where 16-year-old Keymarion Hall was shot and killed in an apparent drive-by a week ago, and three blocks from where 16-year-old Noah Smith was killed in January. Soon after the Smith shooting, Flagler County Sheriff Rick Staly warned against any form of retaliatory acts. And last Friday, after announcing an arrest connected to the Smith shooting, he said the Hall and Smith shootings may have been related.
The Bunnell Police Department and the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office responded, shutting down the area of the shooting to traffic, and later investigating other areas of South Bunnell as they were following leads leads.
First Baptist Christian Academy at 200 East Moody Boulevard went into lockdown and remained so for at least 90 minutes.
“Officers spoke with several other people in the area who were unable to provide any details about the incident,” a Bunnell city release issued this afternoon states, though authorities were, in fact, aware that the incident may have involved a blue sedan and that the individual on the bicycle may have been a juvenile. “Officers spoke with several other people in the area who were unable to provide any details about the incident. The investigation is on-going as officers review privately owned video cameras and conduct a neighborhood canvass.”
There are surveillance cameras at the Carver Center on East Drain Street and at an addiction recovery house nearby, among other locations. Bunnell over a decade ago installed surveillance cameras at certain intersections in South Bunnell, but they have long been de-activated. Last week, just before an unveiling by the Sheriff’s Office and CrimeStoppers of a billboard seeking the public’s help with leads in the killing of Smith, workers were working on a surveillance camera at U.S. 1 and Martin Luther King Boulevard. “We’re evaluating our surveillance cameras in that area and looking to replace them,” Bunnell Police Chief Dave Brannon said.
Hall’s cousin, DeWayne Jenkins, posted on his social media page soon after the shooting: “Shooting again in broad daylight! Rick Staley whatever you wanna do I’m with ya. Y’all can call me what you want but I’m not burying my babies. And y’all know where I’m at.” The posting led to an outpouring of reactions, including concerns about a stray bullet having “no one’s name on it” and the rash of conflicts compounded by violence.
Anyone with information about today’s shooting–or any of the recent shootings–is asked to call CrimeStoppers at 1-877-277-TIPS.
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Speak up says
Of course once again no one seen anything… that’s part of the problem!
Dennis C Rathsam says
When will the parents of these kids held accountable? Were they raised to be hodums? Why are these kids running the streets at that time of night…When they should be home. You cant tell me MA & PA dont see the change in the kids? Its your job to be involved, their your children…Dont let the gangs raise your kids, nothing good ever comes of it!
... says
Not to be that guy…. but this happened at noon, not in the middle of the night.
RL70 says
These damn kids have got to stop texting while driving, err…err, I mean shooting
while driving…
Joe Stolfi says
Sadly, the “war of drugs” will not go away
It’s much too ingrained in the American System
And just as as sadly “somebodies” will step into their place
Maybe not this time, but next ?
It’s the way the game works, cops & robbers .
The “War on Drugs” is over 50 years old,
only the “investors” win, losers get caught,
and go to J A I L, or maybe, lose their life in a bad deal ..
It’s past time the “War on Drugs” changes,
perhaps the USA will take a look at Portugal
and follow their example ..
Then again, what will happen to the game ? .. Cops & robbers
Cindy says
This is so tragic. It took 2 murders to finally get Bunnell police department or whoever to activate well needed cameras. More cameras the better. Put them on everything corner in the housing developments Get those murders behind bars. There’s a lot of hard working citizens living in fear around the neighborhoods.
OnlyMe says
It all points to drugs and money, there obviously is a gang problem going on in the City of Bunnell, and it is time the police department puts uncover agents out there to find who is involved. No one is going to freely offer information.
Peaches McGee says
Little Chicago, just sayin’
Timothy Patrick Welch says
Should drugs really be illegal? You demanded a war on drugs and you got one.
Police vs dealers
Dealers vs dealers
Dealers vs indebted users
Users turn to robbery and prostitution to pay inflated drug prices
Parents vs children
Children vs Parents
etc…
oldtimer says
More undercover cops? I guess defund the police is on the back burner now
The Geode says
Blah-blah-blah! This sheriff department must be filled with a bunch of “Barney Fifes”. They claim to have spent over 900 hours on a murder in a town of 3000 people. WHAT? In the meantime, another murder occurred and the SAME parties are responsible? Unbelievable. Maybe taking out a few grandmas or toddlers would expedite the process. Maybe. Staley seems to be more interested in becoming “Grady Judd” than a defender of the citizens in his county …except “Grady Judd” usually have press conferences AFTER he gets results