ORLANDO, FL – A shooting incident at the Jernigan Gardens Apartments in Orlando, Florida, on Tuesday resulted in one death and left another person injured. These apartments experienced three separate shooting incidents in ten days in the previous year.
The tragic incident occurred around 1:15 p.m. when local police responded to reports of a shooting. The victims were 18-year-old Kevin Dewayne Hodges, who was found in the apartment complex’s breezeway with a gunshot wound and later pronounced dead at the hospital, and a second unidentified victim, who was discovered inside an apartment, also with gunshot wounds. The second victim is now in stable condition at a nearby hospital.
Contradictory early reports suggested there were three victims. However, Orlando Police Department (OPD) corrected this number to two on Wednesday. Nobody has been identified as the shooter as of the latest reports.
Local resident Kendrica Carter, who heard the gunshots that led to Hodges’s death, expressed her concerns about the ongoing violence and the safety of her stepchildren. She no longer feels it’s secure and would like an increased police presence.
The Jernigan Gardens Apartments has been a hotbed of gun violence in recent times. On September 22 and September 28, shootings left one person dead and four injured, respectively. An additional drive-by shooting on October 1 did not result in any injuries but added to the alarming chain of incidents.
Elizabeth Morgan, who runs a local nonprofit, Morgan Ministries, along Mercy Drive, passionately implored for the violence to cease. “It keeps happening over and over again,” stated Morgan, who helps to educate local children via her nonprofit.
Interestingly, most residents allege that most of the crime in their area is perpetrated by non-residents. OPD has appealed to the public to come forward with any relevant information about the incident, urging them to report any tips anonymously to Crimeline.