On August 9, 2023, Tara Baker, a 53-year-old woman from Jacksonville, Florida, was fatally shot at a railroad crossing in the San Marco area. Baker was riding her bicycle and had stopped at the crossing due to a passing train. At the same time, Paige Pringle, a 28-year-old woman, was driving her white SUV on Hendricks Avenue and was also stopped by the train.
The incident occurred around 1:30 a.m.
when a gray Volkswagen Passat, driven by Ty Christopher Head, was following Pringle's vehicle closely. Head parked his car and exited, then shot and killed both Baker, who was standing next to her bicycle, and Pringle, who was inside her SUV. Pringle was shot multiple times, and her vehicle, after she was shot, continued rolling and collided with the passing train. Baker was shot once and later died at the hospital, while Pringle was pronounced dead at the scene.
The Jacksonville Sheriff's Office launched an investigation and identified Ty Christopher Head, a 22-year-old man from Ocala, as the perpetrator. Head had no criminal record but had a history of substance abuse and had been living out of his car at the time of the shooting. He had recently been in a Jacksonville Beach halfway house for addiction recovery.
Head took his own life the day after the double murder, using the same 9mm handgun in Nashville, Tennessee. The JSO, with the help of the FBI and ATF, connected the bullet casings found at the murder scene to Head's gun using the National Integrated Ballistic Information Network. Despite the case being cleared, the exact motive behind Head's actions remains unknown.
Baker's fiancé, Maurice Fisher, described their long-term relationship and their plans to get married soon. He expressed his grief and called for the person responsible to come forward, though he acknowledged that Baker was likely in the wrong place at the wrong time. The community and local businesses, including Fifi's Fine Resale Apparel, which provided surveillance footage, have shown support for the families of the victims as they navigate their grief.
