http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/112106/met_6370788.shtml
Mother of 2 killed in hospital shooting
Brenda Coney, 46, is charged with fatally shooting the manager of the pharmacy at Shands Jacksonville.
By BRIDGET MURPHY, The Times-Union
Francina Coney kept saying the word again and again, like maybe then it wouldn't be true.
"We never thought she would do something like this. Never. Never. Never. ..."
A few hours after police said her stepdaughter Brenda Coney, 46, opened fire inside Shands Jacksonville hospital and shot a pharmacy manager to death Monday, the woman was still trying to figure out what happened to the loved one she said suffers from mental health problems.
"She's supposed to take something," Francina Coney said about a medication her stepdaughter was prescribed. "I don't know whether she's taking it or not."
What she did take, according to the murder charge police booked her into jail on, was the life of a 37-year-old pregnant wife and mother of two who had been working in the hospital's pharmacy since 2002.
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About 9 a.m., Shands pharmacy manager Shannon McCants tried to assist Coney after she had a disagreement with another pharmacist. But Coney opened fire, shooting McCants from about 10 feet away.
Pharmacy patient Stacey Richey, 39, was among those who hit the floor when the shooting started.
"The lady was arguing with the pharmacist and she asked for the manager. She got in the wrong line from what I gather. The manager said 'I'm not going to argue with you. Then boom! boom!' "
Richey said she heard four or five gunshots before she and a few dozen others in the first-floor pharmacy began sprinting for the door.
"It was mass chaos. Everybody was screaming, hollering, running, tripping, falling. I'm not the only one that got trampled."
Richey made it to the elevator, pushed a woman who was getting out back inside it and hit the button for the fifth floor.
Later, Richey said the nurse who was first to help McCants told her the woman was shot in the head and chest.
Police said Coney admitted shooting the victim multiple times.
Hospital pharmacy patient Jackie Jemison, 55, was standing outside the hospital's door when she heard five gunshots and then saw a woman calmly walk outside with a gun in her hand and over to her red Dodge Neon.
"She looked kind of spaced out. She had the gun in her hand," Jemison said. "She just dropped it and police took her into custody."
Jemison said she heard the shooter came to the hospital on Friday and her medication wasn't ready. Police didn't confirm that, and hospital officials wouldn't comment on what they called an ongoing investigation.
"It's bad enough you have to wait two or three hours to get your prescription filled," Jemison said. "I'm stressed out. I wasn't even in the door and heard the shots and I was scared to death."
The victim's husband, Derrick McCants, and the family's pastor, the Rev. Michael Mitchell of St. Stephen AME Church, came to the hospital as a family friend, the Rev. Mark Griffin, waited outside for support.
"If it could happen at Shands at nine o'clock in the morning it could happen anywhere," Griffin said of the violence. "...We're praying right here on the grounds that God will perform a miracle."
But at 11:30 a.m., police said outside the hospital that McCants had died.
Griffin said he would grieve for a woman he called a wonderful young lady and a good mother and wife. A few weeks ago, the McCants couple, the parents of a 7-year-old boy and 7-month-old daughter, found out they'd be parents again next year.
Their celebration of the Thanksgiving holiday was supposed to start Monday night after Shannon McCants worked her last shift before vacation. The family was heading to the couple's hometown of Mobile, Ala., where the husband and wife of 11 years first became sweethearts in high school before attending Florida A&M University together.
"To think they have to go through the holidays without her," said Griffin.
Griffin, pastor at Wayman Chapel AME Church, helped organize the buybacks of 800 guns this year, as the city's murder rate continues on a pace for Jacksonville to stay Florida's per-capita murder capital.
"A shooting like this puts us right back on the map," he said of the death of McCants, who was also a close friend of his wife.
Griffin's fellow pastor, Mitchell, said Monday night that Derrick McCants was too distraught to speak about losing his spouse.
"I think the support of family and friends has helped him make it through the day. Right now he's in shock. He can't believe it happened," Mitchell said.
Mitchell was with the husband when doctors took Shannon McCants into the operating room.
"There was a bullet in the head the CAT scan revealed. ... They believed that it would take a miracle in order to get her through," Mitchell said.
The shooting came the day after the McCants couple worshipped with fellow congregants at St. Stephen AME Church downtown, where Shannon McCants worked with youths as a member of the women's ministry.
"If you wanted to model a life after someone, Shannon was that woman," Mitchell said.
As part of Sunday's service, the couple also celebrated their son's scholastic achievement after his recent honor roll recognition, their pastor said.
Shands officials said grief counselors were on hand to help McCants' colleagues after the shooting. The pharmacy closed for the day, but authorities didn't evacuate the hospital.
The hospital employs about 100 security guards, who don't carry guns, and hires off-duty police officers for more safety. The Jacksonville police officer who was working at the middle school across from the West Eighth Street hospital arrested Coney after responding to a call about the shooting, police said.
Shands Human Resources Vice President Lesli Ward said hospital officials will be re-evaluating security precautions, but that close patient contact is part of health care services.
Ward wouldn't comment on the facts of the incident itself, including what may have sparked the shooting and how many people were in the pharmacy at the time.
Hospital officials also wouldn't say how many security guards or police officers were working at the time, saying it varies from shift to shift. While there are surveillance cameras at undisclosed locations in the facility, hospital officials didn't say if any of the incident was recorded.
The shooting marked Jacksonville's 128th homicide this year, leaving the families of both the victim and suspect without answers about why such a violent incident happened.
The only prior arrest history Brenda Coney has in Florida is for a 1986 trespassing charge, according to state records. The woman spent Sunday helping take care of her 84-year-old father, who she brought shopping and to the doctor all the time, Francina Coney said.
"We didn't think she had a gun," the woman said of her stepdaughter. "... I have to find out the truth because this doesn't sound like the Brenda I know."
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