JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – After more than seven months, two families are still pleading for answers after the deaths of their loved ones, both killed in a shooting at a Jacksonville apartment complex.
Family members tell News4Jax Gabriel Taveras, 23, and Jordan Phelps, 24, were killed in December at an apartment complex off Atlantic Boulevard. No arrests have been announced in their deaths.
“They got robbed of their future to grow, live, love, learn,” said Jarrod Hampton, Taveras’ father.
The families are now offering a combined $5,000 reward for information leading to an arrest.
Hampton says it has been unnerving not knowing who killed his son.
“We’re just full of pain and suffering,” Hampton said. “At this point, we just want closure. We want justice.”
Family members say the two young men showed up to an apartment complex on a Friday night where they were confronted by men with assault rifles.
Hope Wilson-Gilpin, Phelps’ mother, said the ambush has haunted her Fridays forever.
“We used to have family time on Fridays and no longer because every Friday at 10:43 (p.m.) I wait for the time and it just passes with nothing without my son,” she said.
Wilson-Gilpin holds a stuffed animal close to her heart that has her son’s voice inside. She dedicated a room in her house for her popular and funny son who left behind a 5-year-old son of his own.
Taveras was loving and would help in anyone in need, according to his father.
“All we want is somebody to be held accountable,” Hampton said.
In addition to the reward being offered by the families for information, an anonymous tip can be submitted to First Coast Crime Stoppers by calling 1-866-845-TIPS. Tipsters are eligible to receive a cash reward of up to $3,000 if the tip leads to an arrest.