More information has become available on last night’s shooting incident in Jacksonville.
Jacksonville Police responded to a call of shots fired at 5:57 pm Tuesday in the 500 block of East State Street.
According to police reports, a male victim was transported from the scene to Jacksonville Memorial Hospital with non-life-threatening injures resulting from the incident. As of last night, the man was expected to be kept overnight at the hospital, and no further information about his condition is available at this time.
At 6:11 pm, a Morgan County Sheriff’s Deputy who had responded to the scene, witnessed an individual fitting the description of the suspect in the shooting incident, getting into the back of a vehicle on East Douglas Avenue.
The Deputy initiated a traffic stop on the vehicle in the vicinity of the intersession of East Douglas and North Main Street. 18-year-old Sebastian J. Eskew of the 1000 block of North Fayette Street was located in the vehicle and detained and later transported to the Morgan County Sheriff’s Office for questioning on suspicion of reckless discharge of a firearm and robbery.
According to police records at 10:50 pm, Jacksonville Police recovered a pistol in the 600 block of East Douglas Avenue which had been reported stolen from out of state. Investigators say there is reason to believe the recovery of the weapon is connected to the shooting incident, however, the investigation remains ongoing, and a connection to the case could not be confirmed at this time.
In a statement to WLDS News late Tuesday night, Jacksonville Chief of Police Adam Mefford confirmed initial reports of the shooting, saying that the incident was “not a break-in. It is believed to be an isolated incident and we don’t believe there is any threat to the public in relation to this incident.”
Eskew was formally booked into the Morgan County Jail just after midnight on charges of aggravated discharge of a firearm and armed robbery. He remains held at the jail without bond.