JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A teenage girl and her uncle are dead and her aunt was critically injured in a double shooting and suicide Sunday night in a home on Jacksonville's Northside.
Officers were called to the home not far from the Jacksonville National Cemetery about 8:40 p.m. Sunday. The Jacksonville Sheriff's Office said Tim Ricks took his own life after shooting his wife, Willette, and his niece, Jodie Lore, inside the house on Lannie Road.
Willette Ricks, who survived, was flown to UF Health Jacksonville, where she remains in critical but stable condition. Neighbors said Ricks made it to the home of her parents, who live nearby, and called police, saying there were others still in the Lannie Road house.
The SWAT team had to force its way into the house when they got no response from anyone inside. Officers found Tim Ricks and Lore dead. At first light Monday, there was extensive damage to the home and the front door of the home was still open.
Homicide detectives believe all three people lived in the home. Police will not identify crime victims, but News4Jax has learned that Lore was a junior at West Nassau High School, where grief counselors were available to students and staff Monday.
Word of Lore's killing left classmates and friends at West Nassau High stunned. Ex-boyfriend Damon Harris, who described Lore as loving and sweet, called the news heartbreaking.
"Once I got to school and everybody was crying and everything, it really hit," Harris said, noting that Lore always had a smile on her face and genuinely cared for everyone.
Classmate Meriah Burke said Lore, described as an all-around great person, was thrilled that she was going to be a senior in high school and that she had been accepted into the certified nursing assistant program at West Nassau.
It wasn't until Anthony Colon got to school that he figured out what happened. He noticed some fellow students crying and stopped to ask them what was going on. He struggled to find the words to express how he felt.
"Every day is not promised," Colon said. "So you have to live like it's your last and love your family. ... There's really no words. I don't know what to say about that."
