JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Friends and family gathered at a vigil Friday afternoon to remember a Jacksonville Navy veteran who was fatally shot during a road-rage incident on Edgewood Avenue West last Sunday.
The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office found Ronald Lillard on the scene with a fatal gunshot wound to the chest.
Lillard served in the Persian Gulf War, is a father of five, and a grandfather of 10.
His daughter Darnesha Lillard said the turnout meant everything to her family.
“I’m trying to make sure I hold my siblings up in prayer,” she said. “I’m asking that everyone hold us up in prayer because it’s definitely a difficult situation for us to have to endure.”
Darnesha described her father as a great man taken too soon.
“My dad really enjoyed music. He enjoyed music, he enjoyed life in itself,” she said. “He loved to dance, he loved to sing. Everyone who knows him knows, you know, he loved motorcycles, he loved cars. So we just want to make sure that we remember those good times.”
Lillard was a Chicago native. Darnesha said the family plans to hold services in Jacksonville before sending him home to Chicago.
JSO previously said investigators were looking for a small silver SUV in connection with the shooting. As of Friday, no arrests have been made.
Darnesha is calling on anyone with information to come forward.
“We, as his children, his grandchildren, deserve to know what happened to him, what transpired, and we also deserve justice,” she said. “If you know anybody in the situation, if you heard anything, report it to Crimestoppers.”