The St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office is searching for two men who are considered “armed and dangerous” in connection to two deaths.
“Our number one concern right now is catching the one or two people that were involved,” says St. Johns County Sheriff David Shoar.
Two shootings were reported this afternoon almost simultaneously, according to Shoar. St. Augustine Police responded to a shooting off Rollins Avenue and Dr. R.B. Hayling Place, and the Sheriff's Office got a call about one off Duval Street and West 4th Street.
Shoar says a woman was found dead at the Rollins Avenue scene. A young child- possibly an infant- was taken to the hospital from that scene as well in order to be checked out for apparently minor injuries. Shoar says the victim may have been holding the child and dropped it at the time of the shooting.
At the Duval Street scene, deputies found a deceased male victim. A woman in the area had also been shot in the hand, but that injury is not considered life threatening.
Families of the victims have been notified, according to Shoar, but they’re not releasing identities at this time.
Because of how early we are in the investigation, Shoar says they’re not clear on the exact timeline of how things happened.
“We don’t know it it’s domestic related, drug related… we just don’t know what the motives are,” Shoar says.
They are about 90% confident the scenes are related because of similar descriptions of the suspects and vehicle.
“We don’t have that many shootings here and they occurred at the same time about a mile away from each other,” Shoar says.
Investigators are searching for two black males in their 20s or 30s in a 2001 burgundy four-door Ford Contour with a Florida tag, which the suspects are believed to have taken after fleeing the shooting scenes in a silver Nissan Murano with Florida tag WG969. At this time, Shoar says they believe the Contour was stolen, but they are still investigating.
If you see these suspects or this vehicle, you’re asked to call 911.
Shoar is unclear where the suspects are heading, but he say they have all assets deployed to track them down.
“Somebody is probably on the run right now that has killed somebody, and they could be very desperate,” he says.
He’s confident they’re going to find the suspects, but the investigation itself could take days.
This is a developing story that will be updated through the afternoon.