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Tragedy struck a construction site in St. Johns County, Florida, on Wednesday, where an unfortunate shooting incident left one person dead and two others injured. This marks the first criminal homicide in the area in over a year, highlighting the unexpected nature of the event.
The St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office swiftly apprehended 20-year-old Yovany Lopez Cobo, who has been charged in connection with the shooting. The incident reportedly unfolded after an altercation at the bustling construction site within the expanding SilverLeaf neighborhood.
SilverLeaf, particularly the section near Johns Island Parkway, is currently a hive of development activity. New homes are sprouting up all around, and construction workers are a common sight. For those like Aaron Winters, who was installing a security camera at a nearby residence, the incident hits close to home. He expressed relief that he had left the site shortly before the shooting occurred.
“I’ve been in the SilverLeaf neighborhood pretty much since it’s come about,” Winters shared, underscoring the community’s rapid growth and the unsettling nature of such violence in an otherwise peaceful area.
“I’ve been in the SilverLeaf neighborhood pretty much since it’s come about,” Aaron Winters said while installing a security camera at a home nearby.
Aaron Winters has installed countless security cameras all around Silverleaf in his 10 years on the job with HabiTech Systems, but he says he’s never had a shooting right near one of his job sites.
That changed Wednesday, with the shooting just up the road from the home he’s working on.
“I’ve seen arguments on job sites and stuff, but I’ve never even seen anything come to blows, or having a fight or anything,” said Winters. “I would say, I’ve always felt this was a really safe area of town. It’s really heartbreaking to hear.”
The St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office says it started with an argument between coworkers at a construction site on Johns Island Parkway that ended with gunshots.
The sheriff’s office arrested Cobo at a gas station about a half hour after the shooting and charged him with second-degree murder.
The shooting happened just as the work day came to an end, meaning many of the folks who live around where Winters was working were greeted by a wall of flashing lights on their return home.
“My wife was driving back in,” Adam Jackson, who lives nearby, said. “She saw a deputy giving CPR to what was apparently one of the victims.”
Jackson says that’s an image that will stick with his wife, especially since, like so many of their neighbors, they’ve only just moved into the neighborhood that’s still under construction.
“It’s a new neighborhood. It’s a safe neighborhood, not really something that goes on around here,” said Jackson.”
In fact, St. Johns County went through all of 2025 without a criminal homicide, according to the St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office. There were two deadly officer-involved shootings, the agency said, but the deputies were determined to be justified in their use of force.
“Didn’t know that about St. Johns County,” said Jackson. “Everyone comes here for the schools. You don’t think about the safety part. It’s crazy, one, that that hasn’t happened and two, being so close, but I think the likelihood of it occurring again is probably low. We’re not worried or anything.”
The St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office reports the two who were injured are expected to recover.