FERNANDINA BEACH, Fla. – A man shot three of his relatives in a hospital parking lot Thursday, killing one and critically wounded the others before committing suicide outside a nearby school, the county sheriff said.
All four were related by either blood or marriage and apparently had been involved in a domestic dispute, Nassau County Sheriff Tommy Seagraves said.
He declined to release details and did not identify the victims or their ages.
"We're still trying to piece this thing together," Seagraves told reporters outside Baptist Medical Center-Nassau, where a man's body lay next to a car several hours after the shooting.
Two female victims were airlifted to Shands hospital in Jacksonville. Both women were in critical condition, he said, correcting earlier information he was given that one of the women had died.
School officials said there were no injuries to students or personnel at Emma Love Hardee Elementary School, where Seagraves said the gunman shot himself in the parking lot as deputies responded to the scene. It wasn't clear if the gunman had any connection with the school.
The school was put on lockdown, but parents were allowed to pick up their children early, said Sharyl Wood, executive director of administrative services for the Nassau County School Board.
"The school has been in the process of calling all the parents and letting them know what happened so they can be assured their children are OK," Wood said.
Sandra Loper, a teacher's aide at the school, told WJXT-TV in Jacksonville, "The front of the school is glass, so I imagine that somebody could have seen it."
Officials at Baptist Medical Center-Nassau referred calls to the sheriff's office.
Fernandina Beach is a wealthy resort area, about 35 miles northeast of Jacksonville.
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