Riot In Riverside! July 4th riot brings mayhem.

[stephendare]

Reports are flooding in that a riot has broken out in Five Point with the possibility that police have turned Tear Gas onto the crowd.

Several Copters are circling over head with spot lights and the scene on the ground looks like a war zone.

Jacksonville Confidential Editor, Jason is reporting live from the scene that it is mayhem.

This is following an earlier report from Taylor Trastafarian that the entire fivepoints district was lit by sirens, this following a phone call that reported that violence at a show had gotten out of hand.

Jason from Jacksonvilleconfidential.com appears to be confirming that the violence started at a band show in five points.

Although the reports of tear gas are unconfirmed there have been two seperate mentions of it being used.

More coming.

[scaleybark]

After the fireworks I decided to walk to five points to see if there was something going on, and while there was something going on, there was no riot or tear gas while I was there.  I left a bit before 11.  There were a lot of people there, some of whom seemed to be attracted by the helicopter.  Whatever was happening seemed centered around that 4 story brick building on Park St.  I did not walk down Park so I never got a close look.

[stephendare]

Are you talking about the Five Points Theatre Building, Scaley?

[scaleybark]

Yes, I think that's it.  There is a bicycle shop on the ground floor.  It was recently renovated.

The police cars were out front and the helicopter kept lighting the area behind the building.

[David]

I figured something not good was up when I drove by there on my way home earlier..

A ghetto bird's been swooping over the area for the last hour or so...

At about 11:15pm I was coming over the Fuller Warren from San Marco after watching the fireworks from the Southbank, I drove my usual way home (which was in gridlock) but upon getting closer to five points noticed park street was blocked off at post and again on the other side of 5 points. Large crowds of kids (teenagers, maybe early 20's)  were running from the area with at least a half dozen JSO cruisers in front of the old club 5 building.

I should've gone in for a closer look, but being around the booze-fueld shennigans at the beach all day wore me out. Hopefully there's no gunfire/deadly voilence and it was just drunken mayhem.

wow!  i am getting old....on metrojax july4th weekend at midnight

But i prefer to stay in on nights like this. As you can see, it's for the amateurs. Some people don't know how to control themselves when they drink.



 

[rjp2008]

From my impression of that area, I'm not surprised though it doesn't represent all obviously.

[konstantconsumer]

from what i hear two people were shot!  does anyone know the actual scoop? 

[stephendare]

KC.  Two people were shot by cops outside of Plush Nightclub.

Dont know if that is a seperate incident, but it might be the source of the story.

http://www.firstcoastnews.com/news/topstories/news-article.aspx?storyid=113047&catid=15

JACKSONVILLE, FL -- The Jacksonville Sheriff's Office has launched an investigation into a police involved shooting in Arlington.

Investigators say off-duty officers heard gunshots outside the Plush Nightclub on University Boulevard and Arlington Expressway early Saturday Morning.

When they attempted to respond, a car sped toward them.

According to police two men, one of them armed, got out of the car. Police opened fire when they noticed the firearm.

The two men in the car were taken to the hospital with non-life threatening injures.

At this time investigators do not know if the officers fired the bullets that injured the men or if they were injured in the earlier shooting.

According to a police spokesperson the officers involved are on administrative leave.

Police are still looking for suspects involved in the initial shoot out.

[02roadking]

Those TSI hipsters had no place to go... and look what happens        I'm kidding folks
    Hopefully there are no injuries.

   

[downtownparks]

From what I have been told, it related to the 5-points theater. They hosted some sort of rap thing last night (for the third week in a row) and all hell broke loose. Shots fired into the air, and people scrambling as the police arrived. Area businesses, from what I was told, are PISSED because the theater has hosted this type of event now three or four times, and the clientèle they are bringing in are less than desirable.

[David]

Let's just bring club 5 back! Thanks Mr Shad..

Anyway, the special events have been shady at times. Some of them remind me of the cool runnings nights club 5 used to host and the cops have been out in full force because it does seem like the type of crowd that might have alot of drug activity...

A few times it's just some high school graduation/prom party and what appears to be a buncha kids having fun and the cops are out "just incase" it seems.

[Ernest Street]

Is this story getting ignored by the TV stations for some reason? Several thousand residents of the surrounding Blocks witnessed the Fiasco from near and far, and was WAY more spectacle than some random parking lot gunfire at plush...  The copter circled with spotlight on for over an hour.It looked like an action movie set.  Yea thanks SHAD..how many tickets were there?  How many pissed off kids showed up and were turned away?Hmmm

[stephendare]

Interestingly, the cops are denying anything happened.

Its the weekend, and normal communications are impossible until monday when you can talk to records or a spokesman, so I was stuck with the dispatcher at non emergency.

I think its hard for the local tv stations to run a story when they don't have video footage.

Apparently metrojacksonville and jacksonvilleconfidential people were the only ones there at the scene.

[stephendare]

Dane, a neighborhood resident reports that the problem began when the police over reacted to crowd density on the streets.

They felt there were more people than they would be able to handle in case of a problem, and so they started telling people to back off the streets and sidewalks.

Reportedly there was a rap/ hip hop show over at the Five Points Theater Building.

"Basically the cops started pushing people off the streets and acting real nervous and it pissed the crowd off.  When they got pushed against the walls, the crowd started pushing back and it got rowdy, and then out of control."

Then there were gunshots and some dude got shot in the head, I guess over by the Shell Station.

The cops were all in riot gear and we were told to go home immediately by a cop with an assault rifle."

[thebrokenforum]

Is this story getting ignored by the TV stations for some reason?

Fear of bad publicity maybe? Nah, just kidding...normally they would be all over something like this with huge spotlights and raucous interviews from "exclusive" eye-witnesses. Kinda strange. I agree they need footage but they all have police and rescue scanners - they would have to had known about it. Plus the lack of footage doesn't prevent them for going after the fact and doing close-ups of blood stains on the concrete, shattered glass, empty tear gas cans etc. and a quote from Rutherford asking for more cops on the mean streets of Jax.