Public Safety
Winstrom to Brief Media Monday as Investigation Into Targeted Downtown Shooting Continues
Chief says the Fourth of July attack that killed a 19-year-old and wounded six others was targeted, not random, as the city weighs a youth curfew and the case draws national attention.
Pensacola Police Chief Eric Winstrom will hold a news briefing at 11 a.m. Monday to update the public on the investigation into the shooting that killed one teenager and wounded six others in downtown Pensacola early Sunday. The briefing was announced in a statement from Mayor D.C. Reeves following a morning meeting with Winstrom and PPD investigators.
- What we reported first: Winstrom told reporters Sunday morning that the shooting, which happened around 1:20 a.m. in the area of Intendencia Street between Jefferson and Palafox streets, was a targeted attack rather than the result of a fight breaking out in the crowd, as had circulated overnight. The crowd, swollen to as many as 500 people following the city’s fireworks show, included many teenagers.
- A 19-year-old man died at the scene despite officers applying tourniquets and performing CPR. Six other victims, ranging in age from 16 to 26, were taken to area hospitals and are expected to survive.
“It is too early to rule out more than one shooter,” Winstrom said, citing witness accounts, surveillance video and the narrow, fenced layout of the crime scene.
No suspect has been identified, and no one is in custody. Roughly 50 additional officers, three times the normal holiday deployment, had been assigned downtown. At least five arrests were made before the shooting, mostly for disorderly conduct and throwing fireworks at people; one teenager taken into custody was found carrying a handgun.
Mayor’s Statement
Reeves praised the investigative team and the cooperation of downtown business owners and residents:
“I have every confidence that they will bring this investigation to a conclusion and find the person or persons behind this,” Reeves said, adding that PPD “will continue to update our citizens as soon as details are available.”
Curfew Under Consideration
A youth curfew is now on the table. Winstrom said Sunday that the city may need to consider one after seeing children he estimated to be as young as 10 or 11 years old out on the street around 1 a.m., a situation he called “not exactly the safest.” He noted that his two previous law enforcement jurisdictions both had curfews in place, something Pensacola currently lacks. Mayor Reeves has also floated the idea in conversations with Black community leaders.
The chief stopped short of endorsing a new ordinance. He said the more immediate need is greater involvement from parents and family members, noting that few people he has arrested over his career had a parent or mentor looking out for them. Asked whether parents of minors involved in Sunday’s shooting, either as arrestees or victims, could face penalties, Winstrom said it was worth considering but committed to no specific policy.
- No curfew ordinance currently exists in Pensacola
- Winstrom’s prior jurisdictions both had curfews in place
- Reeves yesterday raised the idea with Black community leaders
Part of a National Pattern
The Pensacola shooting has drawn national attention as one of several holiday-weekend shootings across the country. National coverage placed it alongside a wave of Fourth of July violence that killed at least five people and injured dozens in multiple cities.
Other incidents cited in national roundups:
- Fort Wayne, Indiana: One woman found dead, eight adults treated for non-life-threatening wounds after a shooting past 3 a.m. Sunday
- Gary, Indiana: Two separate shootings, one killing a 10-year-old boy
- Brooklyn’s Coney Island: A gunman wounded at least eight people, including four children, at a family barbecue
- Additional shootings reported in St. Louis, Compton, Dayton and Canton, Ohio
National reporters have also grouped the Pensacola shooting into a broader “teen takeover” trend, in which cities including Orlando, Washington, D.C. and New York have grappled with large, unaccompanied gatherings of young people organized on social media, prompting some of those cities to weigh curfews of their own.
What’s next: Winstrom is expected to give the public its first substantive update since Sunday morning at Monday’s 11 a.m. briefing. Detectives have been reviewing surveillance footage and interviewing victims at area hospitals. The investigation remains active, and Inweekly will have coverage of the briefing as soon as it concludes.
Mayor Reeves’ Full Statement on Facebook:
Chief Eric Winstrom will hold a news briefing at 11 a.m. Monday morning to discuss the latest information about the investigation and its progress.
Pensacola Police Department investigators have been working through the night to find the person or persons responsible for the shooting in our downtown early Sunday. I met with Chief Eric Winstrom and our excellent team of investigators at PPD this morning. I have every confidence that they will bring this investigation to a conclusion and find the person or persons behind this.
I’m grateful to the business owners and residents who are cooperating with law enforcement, sharing what they saw and what they know. Our city has an excellent law enforcement team who have been working around the clock this weekend – some through the night and still on the clock – and we know they will not rest until the work is through.
PPD will continue to update our citizens as soon as details are available.