UDPATE FROM SHERIFF IVEY 4:15pm:
Currently our agency is conducting a death investigation, after receiving information that an adult male subject had been allegedly shot, accidentally, inside a vehicle near a local elementary school.
First and foremost, I want to reassure our citizens and especially our parents, that this was an isolated incident that was completely contained inside a vehicle, and while the occupants were in fact headed to the nearby school to pick up their grandchild, they were not at the school or on school property when the incident occurred!! Even with that, and thanks to our incredible security partnership with Brevard Public Schools, security protocols were immediately initiated at the nearby school and the campus was quickly locked down until Deputies could arrive on scene and subsequently give an all clear once the scene was secured.
The investigation started after Deputies responded to the area of Balfern Street in Port St John, at approximately 1:20 p.m. after our Communications Center received a call advising that an adult male had been shot in a vehicle when a firearm accidentally discharged. Once on scene, Deputies immediatey secured the area and located the male victim who was pronounced deceased as the result of what appears to be a gunshot wound. Agents from our Homicide and Crime Scene Units have responded to the area and are in the process of interviewing potential witnesses while also collecting evidence to determine the exact circumstances surrounding the incident.
