JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 A Jacksonville couple is calling for accountability and stronger safety measures after they say they were physically and sexually assaulted at a Hush Hush Jax event over the weekend.<\/p>\n
Aaron and Ebonique Gill said their Saturday night started as a celebration, but minutes after arriving, their night took a traumatic turn.<\/p>\n
In a video shared with Action News Jax, a man walks up to Ebonique and shoves her hard to the ground. <\/p>\n
Ebonique says the moment was terrifying.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs he yelled down the hallway, we\u2019re still not thinking anything of it\u2026 and completely caught off guard. When he grabbed me and slammed me to the floor, I\u2019m thinking I don\u2019t know, maybe people came down the hallway and bumped into me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Aaron says that after his wife was pushed, the situation escalated.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter I left him to make sure my wife was okay, he stood up, pulled his pants down, and fully exposed himself to everyone who was in the hallway.\u201d<\/p>\n
The couple says the man continued to be irate.<\/p>\n
Aaron says he immediately called the police, but before officers arrived, the man was already gone.<\/p>\n
>>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <\/b><\/a><\/p>\n \u201cDuring the time I was on the phone with police\u2026 an Uber had been ordered for the assailant, and he was placed in the Uber by the co-owner of the business,\u201d Aaron said. \u201cOnce police did arrive, he was long gone at that point.\u201d<\/p>\n Both Aaron and Ebonique say the ordeal left them shaken.<\/p>\n \u201cSomething could happen at any moment. There has to be security and not covering up what happens and not helping out assailants.\u201d<\/p>\n Hush Hush Jax responded publicly in an Instagram post, calling the incident \u201cdevastating and heartbreaking.\u201d<\/p>\n The company says the event was canceled, the man has been barred from future events, and that they\u2019re now pressing charges while evaluating their security protocols. <\/p>\n The company confirmed that the man isn\u2019t an employee but was staffing the event, and that the company\u2019s co-owner *did* order an Uber because they felt it was best to remove him from the situation. <\/p>\n The Jacksonville Sheriff\u2019s Office confirmed a police report exists, but we\u2019re still waiting to receive it.<\/p>\n For now, the Gills say they want better security for creative spaces. <\/p>\n [DOWNLOAD: <\/b>Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks<\/b><\/a>]<\/b><\/p>\n [SIGN UP: <\/b>Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter<\/b><\/a>] <\/b><\/p>\n Click here<\/b><\/a> to download the free Action News Jax news and weather apps, <\/b>click here<\/b><\/a> to download the Action News Jax Now app for your smart TV and <\/b>click here<\/b><\/a> to stream Action News Jax live.<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 A Jacksonville couple is calling for accountability and stronger safety measures after they say they…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":402560,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5136],"tags":[1437,15619,13030,5229,13037,13029,190399,190400,190398,3188,723,190397,190401,563,7310,8423,425,190403,190402,4009,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-403316","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jacksonville","8":"tag-aaron","9":"tag-action_news_jack","10":"tag-action_news_jacks","11":"tag-america","12":"tag-deja","13":"tag-deja_mayfield","14":"tag-ebonik","15":"tag-ebonique","16":"tag-erin_gill","17":"tag-fl","18":"tag-florida","19":"tag-hush_hush_jack","20":"tag-hush_hush_jacks","21":"tag-instagram","22":"tag-jacksonville","23":"tag-jso","24":"tag-local","25":"tag-nick_cano","26":"tag-paulus_musico","27":"tag-uber","28":"tag-united-states","29":"tag-united-states-of-america","30":"tag-unitedstates","31":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","32":"tag-us","33":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115609715738688285","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403316","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=403316"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403316\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/402560"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=403316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=403316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=403316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}