A 19-year-old Eustis man was arrested Tuesday and charged with two counts of attempted second-degree murder with a firearm in connection with a drive-by shooting that happened in broad daylight last week.
Jaques Jonathan Ama Jenkins, of 713 Getford Court, was also charged with shooting a deadly missile into a vehicle, discharging a firearm from a vehicle, and discharging a firearm within 1,000 feet of a school, along with a pair of probation violations. He’s being held in the Lake County Jail on $127,000 bond.
Shortly before 5 p.m. Sept. 7, Eustis police officers responded to the McDonald’s at 2800 S. Bay St. in Eustis, where a red Ford Escape SUV was in the road between the fast-food restaurant and the neighboring RaceTrac gas station. The SUV had multiple bullet holes on both the driver and passenger sides, according to the police report.
The driver-side front window was shattered and partially down with a bullet hole. There was a second bullet hole in the driver-side rear door and a third hole in the passenger-side front door. Broken glass was observed in the rear seat, along with blood on the driver’s seat and on water bottles in the cupholders, the report said.
A witness approached officers and said she saw a man and woman get out of the red SUV. She said an unknown good Samaritan who was in RaceTrac took them both to AdventHealth Waterman hospital. Detectives asked to see security footage from both McDonald’s and RaceTrac, but the only video that showed anything was a view of South Bay Street that showed the SUV appearing to slow down to turn into the plaza, according to the report.
An employee working the McDonald’s drive-through window said she saw the red SUV pull into the plaza and park. She said the male driver got out and was bleeding from his left elbow. The witness said the driver took his shirt off, wrapped it around his arm to try and stop the bleeding, and ran around the parking lot asking for help. She said the victims got into a vehicle and left, the report said
The officer responded to Waterman and spoke with the victims. The male said he was driving home from work with his girlfriend and taking the back way due to not having a license and having been pulled over by an officer recently. He said he drove north on Eudora Road and turned west onto Old Mount Dora Road. The male victim said he was traveling west when a black car traveling east swerved into his lane, causing him to run off the road to avoid a collision. The victim said the vehicle has black wheels and tinted windows, and the passenger mirror is broken and hanging down, according to the report.
The male victim said he resumed traveling west and was approaching the stop sign at Grove Street when he saw the same car coming up behind him at a high speed. He said while he was slowing down for the stop sign, the car pulled up next to him in the opposite lane, rolled down the window and pointed what he described as a black Glock with an extended magazine, and started shooting while driving around the front of his vehicle, the report said.
The male victim said the black car continued to drive around his SUV and onto the grass while shooting, then continued east on Old Mount Dora Road. He said he turned right onto Grove Street, left onto the first road and then onto Bay Street and and into the RaceTrac parking lot. The male victim said he got out of his vehicle and started yelling for help before a good Samaritan took him and his girlfriend to Waterman. The male victim had two gunshot wounds to his left elbow, according to the report.
The male victim said the driver was the only person in the vehicle and described him as a black male with “wicks,” which is a street name for short dreadlocks. He recognized the driver as “gbgquezz,” which is his Instagram username. The male victim said he knew the driver’s name was Jaques but didn’t know his last name. Police looked at the Instagram profile and identified the driver as Jaques Jenkins, the report said.
The male victim said there has been an ongoing dispute between him and several gang members of GPG, Third World, and 1DK, and he believes Jenkins is associated with one of those gangs. He said about a year and a half ago, he bought marijuana from Jenkins and Jenkins tried to sell him a gun, too. The male victim said gang members started harassing him about two months ago for no reason. He said Jenkins once walked up to him while he was entering his apartment and displayed a gun. He said about two months ago, someone broke into his bedroom in his father’s apartment on Hazzard Avenue and stole a gun, some marijuana, and a bag of cash. The male victim said incident wasn’t reported to police. He said about a week later, Jenkins and his associates were talking trash about him on Instagram, according to the report.
The male victim described an incident on Sept. 1 when he was driving home from work on Palmetto Road in front of Myung Sung Store when Jenkins started following him around in the same car. City of Eustis cameras across the street from the store captured video that day of Jenkins driving a black Hyundai four-door car. When shown the video, both victims said this was the vehicle in the incident, the report said.
The female victim said she was using her phone when the SUV was run off the road by the black car. She said the car then came up behind them at the stop sign and the driver started shooting at them. The female victim said the driver was a dark-skin male with wicks and was the sole occupant. She said she recognized him from previous arguments and the ongoing dispute, according to the report.
The intersection of Old Mount Dora Road and Grove Street is within 1,000 miles of Faith Lutheran Church, which operates a private school program. The church had several vehicles in the parking lot and appeared to be active. The school hours end at 4:30 p.m. and an afterschool program goes until 6 p.m., the report said.
A witness said he saw the victim’s SUV stopped at the intersection when the black vehicle pulled up and the driver started shooting before fleeing east on Old Mount Dora Road. A resident on South Grove Street said she heard several gun shots that sounded like they came from a vehicle that passed her residence, according to the report.
Police found a Hyundai that matched the description of the shooter’s car in a driveway at 713 Getford Court. They spoke to the driver, who identified herself as Jenkins’ grandmother. She said the vehicle was at home at around 4 p.m. and she didn’t know where Jenkins was. She didn’t provide any other information, the report said.
Police put together a photo lineup to show the female victim, who pointed out Jenkins. The male victim confirmed this was the shooter and a warrant was issued for Jenkins, who was arrested around 6 p.m. Tuesday.
Jenkins is scheduled to appear in Lake County Court on Oct. 4.
