Watch the news conference on holiday murder-suicide in Jacksonville
Jacksonville police said a man left suicide notes before cutting his girlfriend’s throat and shooting himself in the head at their home
First Coast News
- A murder-suicide involving a young couple and a separate fatal shooting marred the Fourth of July in Jacksonville.
A murder-suicide of a young couple and a separate shooting death of another young woman muted the end of the Fourth of July in Jacksonville. Both were reported within a half-hour of each other beginning about 1 a.m., one on the Northside and the other the Westside.
The murder-suicide was the third in Jacksonville this year, according to Times-Union records. It was called in about 1:30 a.m. at home in the 11500 block of Lorence Avenue between Lem Turner and Duval roads.
Sgt M. Highfill said the couple had been in a relationship for about two years and living together by themselves according to the family. Both were 19 or 20 years old, but their names have not been released. The man left multiple suicide notes and was found with a self-inflicted gunshot wound to his head, Highfill said. The woman suffered a stab wound to her neck.
The motive and contents of the letters were not released.
What happened in 4th of July shooting?
The other young woman killed following a Fourth of July party was in her 20s and also not identified. It began with a fight breaking out among a group of people about 1 a.m. in the 5800 block of Rover Drive near 103rd Street. Highfill said the woman was shot in the upper chest and died at the scene. It wasn’t stated whether she was involved in the fight or a bystander.
Officers detained multiple people at the scene and were working to determine the relationships of everybody involved and what happened. No description of the shooter was released.
What happened in Jacksonville’s other murder-suicides?
The city has had two other domestic-related murder-suicides this year.
On June 25, husband and wife Barbara and Gerald Bradburn, both 76, were found dead by their caretaker from gunshot wounds at their Clements Woods Lane home. The husband was deemed the shooter, according to the Sheriff’s Office. The couple had no domestic or criminal issues in Duval County court records and had recently paid off their mortgage. There’s speculation it may have been due to health issues.
On Feb. 20, husband and wife Christina and Born Supreme, 48 and 61 years old, and 68-year-old Pamela Kay Gibbs were found shot to death at their Gilmore Street home. The wife had told her daughter she was getting a divorce and that her husband had been threatening her. Her daughter said he had been violent toward her in the past and she begged her to leave him, according to Sheriff’s Office report. The other woman was under the wife’s care.