JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The family of Prince Holland, the teen killed in a drive-by shooting near the Legends Center in Northwest Jacksonville, hired an attorney to get answers about their son’s death.
Related Story: JSO: 13-year-old killed after drive-by shooting in Northside that leaves multiple injured – Action News Jax
Marwan Porter, with Porter Law Firm, is looking into the football organization Holland was trying out with before police said his coach drove him home, which led to a drive-by shooting near the Legends Center on New Kings Road.
>>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <<<
“I can’t hug my baby. I can’t even kiss my baby good night,” Chantel Brown, Holland’s mother, said. “Why? Because you couldn’t make a phone call and ask me was it okay.”
[DOWNLOAD: Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks]
Brown said the organization, Ambitious Kings and Queens Lions Youth Organization, never asked her permission to have the coach drive Holland home. She claimed she never signed any paperwork to have the 13-year-old try out for football and didn’t know the name of the organization until just a few days ago.
“Why do parents not know who you are? Had I known — I doubt they would’ve given my son a ride. Because I would’ve picked him up myself,” Brown said.
Porter said his firm is going to investigate the organization to ensure it has the proper permits and procedures. If not, they plan to pursue legal action.
According to the state’s Division of Corporations, the nonprofit started Oct. 19 to “give back to kids through sports, while placing and having a discipline foundation set forth .…”
The president, Michael Holmes, told Action News Jax’s Robert Grant on the phone that he was getting an attorney and had no comment.
“You can’t just show up somewhere and put on an event. You have to take the proper procedures. Maybe they did. Maybe they did not. But we’re going to find those things out. Had all those things occurred — we wouldn’t be here right now,” Porter said.
[SIGN UP: Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter]
During a news conference Wednesday, Action News Jax asked Sheriff T. K. Waters about the investigation. Waters said, “If I start giving out information that only we know and the bad guy knows, then that can mess us up in the long run. ... It’s very important for us to keep a lot of those things close to us until we get to the point where we can make an arrest, but we are making some progress.”