A police car blocks the road where several people were shot in Oakleaf on Monday, Sept. 15, 2025. | News4Jax
Published on September 18, 2025 at 5:02 pm
Free local news and info, in your inbox at 6 a.m. M-F. Sign up for the Jacksonville Today newsletter.
It remains a mystery why a gunman forced himself into a home in the Oakleaf area this week and shot several people before he was killed. But police are starting to release details about the shooting.
Included in new information released Thursday is the fact that a 16-year boy shot the intruder while trying to defend others in the home on Pine Oaks Lane.
Jacksonville Today thanks our sponsors. Become one.
In a social media post, Clay County Sheriff Michelle Cook said there seems to be “no rhyme or reason” why the gunman, Mauricio Vasco Lopez, 45, of Jacksonville, burst into the home sometime around 6 a.m. Monday.
“First, I want to commend the brave 16-year-old who took immensely heroic actions to save the rest of his family,” Cook wrote on Facebook. “He is going to have to live with this for the rest of his life.
“As a community, we need to pray for him. We also need to pray for all of the victims involved as they did not deserve this evil. Make sure you hug your loved ones. … Tomorrow is not guaranteed.”
Jacksonville Today thanks our sponsors. Become one.
Details from Oakleaf
Detectives said Lopez and his wife left their home on Dennis Street in Jacksonville after midnight and drove through Clay County for several hours, until a flat tire stopped them near the Pine Oakes Lane home.
Lopez left his wife in their vehicle, walked into the home’s fenced yard and forced an 18-year-old man inside, police said
Once inside, Lopez shot a 21-year-old woman and then a 48-year-old man, investigators said. But as another woman, Samantha Cicone, 39, grabbed a shotgun, Lopez shot her multiple times.
Cicone did not survive, but the 16-year-old boy grabbed the shotgun and fired two rounds at Lopez, the Sheriff’s Office said. Lopez died later at a hospital.
An 11-year-old girl hid inside a bedroom during the bedlam, and three others — ages 18, 19 and 48 — escaped the home and sought help from a neighbor, the Sheriff’s Office said.
All of the people Lopez found inside and outside the home lived there, the Sheriff’s Office said.
A search of Lopez’s vehicle uncovered two more guns and body armor. In a separate search of his home, the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office found more guns but no evidence showing any link to the victims, Clay County officials said.
Court files show that police were called to Lopez’s home Sept. 11 in reference to an auto burglary, only to find him trying to leave in his black Audi.
Police found a white powdery substance on the floor of the car that tested positive for cocaine, and Lopez was arrested on charges of cocaine possession and trespass in a vehicle, his arrest report said. Lopez was released on bail the next day, jail records show.
While the motive for the Clay County shooting remains unknown, “the suspect had several apparent mental health crises recently,” the Clay County Sheriff’s Office said.
Anyone with more information on the shooting is asked to call the Clay County Sheriff’s Office at 904-264-6512.
Cook also offered this advice: If anyone has a loved one suffering from a severe mental health crisis, call 911 or the 988 Suicide and Crisis Hotline.
