JFRD captain: Some shooting victims may have died if they weren't at nearby training exercise

The livestream of a Madden 19 video game tournament captured the horrifying mass shooting at the Jacksonville Landing  shopping center Sunday, capturing the sounds of gunshots and screams. Two gamers died, several more were wounded.

The Jacksonville Fire and Rescue firefighters from Ladder 1 said in a news conference Monday morning that some of the victims may have not made it if they weren't nearby at a training event.

JFRD said the day started out as any other Sunday in downtown Jacksonville. They were doing elevator training in a parking garage on Hogan Street.

The training incident ended after they saw people running across the street from the Landing. One man allegedly yelled at the firefighters, "I've been shot."

Though they are trained to wait for police, firefighters and JSO officers went into action, attending to victims. "You don't think about it. You just do what you can to help," one first responder said.

“We are trained to stage, wait for JSO, that wasn’t happening we were thrust into the situation," Captain Jeremy Cooke said.

Captain Cooke says his team's quick action saved at least two wounded victims from dying.

"One or two of the patients might not have not made it, that we trauma alerted. If we had to wait and stage for JSO to clear the scene -- because clearing the Jacksonville Landing would've taken some time... I believe probably a couple of those people would have bled out by then," according to captain Cooke.

Cox Media Group