Two people are dead, including the suspect, after an early Monday morning shooting in Clay County.

Deputies say Mauricio Vasco Lopez, 45, entered a home on Pine Oaks Lane and began shooting people inside.

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Action News Jax’s Jake Stofan has been in Jacksonville’s Mandarin neighborhood all Monday afternoon, and there is a major police presence that appears to be related to the shooting in Clay.

We’re still working to confirm that with the police, but a home in Mandarin was listed as Mauricio Lopez’s home address. While we have seen officers go checking around that home, the police activity is mostly one street down.

We’re also getting some clues from neighbors and a recent arrest report that Lopez seemed to have mental health issues and may have been in crisis leading up to the shooting this morning.

Ellen Gallagher, who lives near where the shooting happened in Clay County, said in her 30 years of living there, she’s never seen the kind of commotion she woke up to Monday morning.

“You might have kids breaking into an empty place being nosy, but other than that no. It’s been a nice quiet area other than the traffic,” Gallagher said.

Deputies say Lopez shot three of the people inside the home before one of the occupants returned fire, hitting Lopez.

Clay County Undersheriff Ron Lendvay indicated that if not for the quick action of the person in the home who returned fire, the outcome could have been much worse, as at least eight people, including children, were believed to be in the home at the time of the shooting.

“It certainly could have been much more tragic. Somebody in there helped save some folks, and I think we all owe that person a debt of gratitude,” Lendvay said.

By the time deputies arrived, one victim was already dead, two more victims and Lopez were taken to the hospital, where Lopez also died.

The motive behind the shooting is unclear, but just last Tuesday, Lopez was arrested in Duval County and charged with cocaine possession and trespassing.

In that arrest report, the officer wrote Lopez told him, “he has been off his medication and doesn’t know why he did this.”

When we arrived at Lopez’s last listed address in Mandarin, we were greeted with a heavy police presence.

We saw Jacksonville Sheriff’s officers checking out Lopez’s home, but the majority of the activity was happening one street over.

We were there as SWAT vehicles, including a heavy battery ram arrived on scene, and shortly after, we could hear officers communicating with occupants inside the house that they had a warrant.

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Neighbors also told us there was an incident involving a man matching Lopez’s description Sunday afternoon, where a person was walking up and down the street and appeared to be having a mental health crisis.

Neighbors also told us that person was seen banging their head on the ground.

It’s unclear what drove Lopez to go to the home in Clay County and open fire.

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The Undersheriff says connections between Lopez and the residents in the home are being investigated.

“Our detectives and crime scene techs have a lot of interviews, scene work and follow up to conduct to clarify exactly what happened here and what the motive may have been,” Lendvay said.

Deputies told us they expect to be working for the better part of the day out at the crime scene in Clay County. It’s unclear how long JSO will be here in Mandarin, and what exactly it is they’re looking for here.

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