August 26, 2018

Multiple Fatalities in Mass Shooting at Jacksonville Madden Video Game Event

Jacksonville Sheriff Mike Williams, right, holds a news conference Sunday after a gunman opened fire during an online video game tournament that was being livestreamed from a Florida mall, killing multiple people and sending many others to hospitals.Laura Heald/AP

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Update 5 pm ET: Jacksonville sheriff Mike Williams said at a press conference Sunday afternoon that the scene had been cleared and that there were no outstanding suspects.

The Jacksonville, Florida, sheriff’s office is warning people to stay away from a riverfront entertainment district there known as the Landing, after a mass shooting event Sunday. 

Local news sources report that 11 people were shot and four killed in the shooting, and the sheriff’s office says that one suspect is reported dead at the scene. The shooting occurred at a Madden football video game tournament taking place at the Landing. One of the competitors, Drini Gjoka, who last year became the youngest competitor ever to win an EA Sports Madden NFL Championship Series belt, was among the injured: He tweeted from inside the event:

A tweet that appears to include footage of the tournament interrupted by gunshots and screams from the shooting is making the rounds. (Warning: disturbing content.) 

 

David Hogg, a former student at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, who survived the February shooting there that killed 17 people, was with other gun control activists in front of a Smith & Wesson facility in Massachusetts protesting gun violence when the shooting in Jacksonville took place. He tweeted at his home-state senator, Marco Rubio (R):

 

He also called on the media asking that they not publicize the name or photo of the alleged shooter once his identity is known, as part of an effort to take the celebrity out of mass shootings:

This is a developing story and Mother Jones will update as more information becomes available.

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In "News Never Pays," our fearless CEO, Monika Bauerlein, connects the dots on several concerning media trends that, taken together, expose the fallacy behind the tragic state of journalism right now: That the marketplace will take care of providing the free and independent press citizens in a democracy need, and the Next New Thing to invest millions in will fix the problem. Bottom line: Journalism that serves the people needs the support of the people. That's the Next New Thing.

And it's what MoJo and our community of readers have been doing for 47 years now.

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In "This Is Not a Crisis. It's The New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, why this moment is particularly urgent, and how we can best communicate that without screaming OMG PLEASE HELP over and over. We also touch on our history and how our nonprofit model makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there: Letting us go deep, focus on underreported beats, and bring unique perspectives to the day's news.

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