Mayor: 'Combination of sadness and anger' after child shot, killed

I want to thank, again, our day-to-day partner(s) in fighting crime in this community, [State Attorney] Melissa Nelson, our Mayor Lenny Curry and another great partner with us Wyllie Hodges from Crime Stoppers for coming out today too and help us work on this case.

As you know, yesterday afternoon at about 6 p.m., 7-year-old Heydi Villanueva was sitting in a vehicle with her father in the shopping plaza at the 7900 block of 103rd Street.

PHOTOS: Persons of interest in murder of Jacksonville 7-year-old

The family had just dropped the mother off at a nearby business in that same strip mall.

In an adjacent parking lot, about 70 feet away, an incident occurred that prompted gunfire between two groups of individuals.

Two people on foot approached a dark sedan where a confrontation took place with the driver.

A dark-colored Kia was parked next to the sedan, [which] also appeared to be involved in this interaction.

Gunfire erupted between the groups and a stray bullet struck Heydi in the head while she was in the vehicle, and she later died at the hospital.

The two people on foot fled to a green, early to mid-2000s Nissan Altima that we currently believe has a bullet hole in the windshield, in the upper part of the windshield.

Later today, as you’ve seen we have released lots of still footage, later today we are going to be releasing video footage of the two individuals who were on foot, video footage of the green Altima, and video footage of the black Kia that was involved in this incident.

So anyone who knows any information in reference to this shooting or obviously the persons of interest or any of the vehicles in the photos we released or the videos that we will release this afternoon is asked to contact Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office at 630-0500 immediately.

Our partners at Crime Stoppers provide a platform to anonymously share information with law enforcement. Anonymously share information and receive a cash reward for that information.

There is currently an $11,000 reward for information in this case that leads to the arrest of the person or persons responsible for this case.

And again, if you have information and you want to remain anonymous there is an $11,000 reward out there and all you have to do is contact Crime Stoppers at 1-866-845-TIPS. 1-866-845-TIPS.

So we are about 20 hours into this investigation, and I can tell you we have gotten lots of tips from the community through social media, through phone calls.

Good tips, good leads and our investigative team worked, obviously through the night, some went home and are back already, others are still here so we can continue to run down the leads in this case and will continue to do so.

And with that I will turn it over to the mayor.

When I got the news last evening obviously a terrible evening in a combination of sadness and anger that I know the entire community is feeling.

I was on the phone with the sheriff immediately getting updates.

We’ve mourned with the family and today is really about identifying the people that did this. We use  Crime Stoppers so our law enforcement to get these guys off the street and our state attorney can prosecute these guys for the terrible thing that they did in Jacksonville last night.

So thank you, Mayor, and with that I will have Miss Nelson come up.

I don’t have anything to add other than a plea for information, thank you for those who have taken the time to communicate with JSO and call the hotline, thank you for Crime Stoppers for increasing the award and encouraging anybody who knows anything to please contact JSO and let us know.

And, again, before I ask Wyllie to come up, an $11,000 reward currently for information that leads to an arrest, and that’s completely anonymous.

Crime Stoppers is the only anonymous tip line, if you will in the United States, one that we use extensively at JSO.

Pretty much everything I was going to say has already been said. I will continue to reiterate the anonymity.

The anonymity is the heart of the program and you’ve got two ways to call, you’ve got the Sheriff’s Office, and if you don’t want to be known and you want to remain anonymous, you call Crime Stoppers.

Which means there is absolutely no reason not to call us with any information.

You know if the criminals out there knew that every time they commit a crime that our phones are gonna start ringing, I assure you that would be a deterrent to crime.

I beg and plead with you again, everyone is on vacation in this city, if you know something about it, please call, it is your obligation, 1-866-845, TIPS. Thank you very much.

Thanks Wyllie. Wyllie makes a great point, at the end of the day we have to have partnerships with the community to solve cases like this. We absolutely have to, and we’re getting a lot of great feedback now.

But we need more, obviously we need more information so we can get these individuals responsible off the streets.