JACKSONVILLE BEACH, Fla. — Family members of 21-year-old James Jones III are still reeling from losing their loved one. He was a father, a brother, a son, and an uncle.
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Jones was shot and killed in one of three shootings in Jacksonville Beach, Sunday night.
“I’m broken,” Jones’s mother Katrina Williams said. “I’m scarred for life over something so senseless.”
Just three months ago, Jones became a first-time dad to his baby girl.
“He was valuable to our family,” Jones’s cousin Shameka Wilcox said. “He was a father to a three-month-old; a passionate father. He took his position seriously, he nurtured.”
Jones was one of five kids.
“You knew he was the middle child with his big personality,” Wilcox said. “He made sure there was a balance. He was a leader to his younger siblings; he gave them an example that they could look up to.”
Unfortunately, his life was cut short, Sunday night when he was shot and killed on St. Patrick’s Day in the parking lot of Sneaker’s Sports Bar and Grill.
The horror from that night has tarnished the good memories of going to the beach.
“I gotta go out there and know that my baby was laying on the ground with blood coming out of his head on the concrete,” Williams said.
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Wilcox said Jax Beach needs to have more security.
“Our beach is supposed to be fun, family-fun, laughter, sun, waves and now we have to remember our beach as a murder ground,” Wilcox said. “That’s a problem.”
Police said there was a large crowd of teenagers fighting by the pier earlier that night and his family said he was not associated with that group.
“This is not your person that was in something or the kid that was constantly in trouble,” Wilcox said. “He was that kid, he followed instructions, he did what he was supposed to do.”
Jones played football for Oakleaf High School and graduated in 2021. More recently, he had been studying to become a merchant mariner.
“Him being away from us now, there is a void in our family, in our community – this whole Oakleaf community is hit by his absence,” Wilcox said.
And police are still looking for Jones’s shooter.
“We know God,” Williams said. “And this family right here, we pray. It’s a family that prays together. So we’re going to get justice one way or another, we’re going to get justice.”
If you have any information, you’re asked to call the police or you can call Crimestoppers and remain anonymous.
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