JACKSONVILLE BEACH, Fla. – The mother of a 21-year-old man fatally shot in one of three Jacksonville Beach shootings on St. Patrick’s Day wants answers in her son’s death.
Katrina Williams, the mother of James Jones, attended Wednesday’s Beaches Watch community meeting, focusing on public safety.
The Jacksonville Beach Police Department, Neptune Beach Police Department and Atlantic Beach Police Department police chiefs presented information about their agencies’ successes and challenges.
JBPD Chief Gene Paul Smith said they’ve made big steps since the shootings in March and that they are still working to solve those cases.
“I don’t have any answers; it’s almost been four months,” Williams said at the meeting.
While Smith couldn’t publicly give many details about the investigation, he said the case was still active and would share details with Willaims privately.
“Just like every homicide we work, we will get this solved, if it’s possible, but don’t forget we have to prove it,” Smith said.
JBPD said a week ago that they have identified suspects in the other two shootings on St. Patrick’s Day.
Williams talked about what it meant for the chief to speak to her privately about her son’s case.
“Hopefully, I have something more to make me feel a little bit better to give me a little peace. Because I’ll never be the same. This is my boy. This was a good boy. I raised a good boy,” Williams said.
Jones was a new father when he was killed. His daughter was just 3 months old.
Smith said he has taken steps to ensure a night like St. Patrick’s Day won’t happen again.
“I’ve got extra positions in my budget,” Smith said. “We’ve made some paid arrangements to reward experienced officers. We’ve received five officers from out of state that we’ve raised the pay for experienced officers.”
Smith also said training officers takes time.
“You can’t mass produce good policemen. If you want a department to be something, to be fully staffed, to be well trained, it takes at least a year. We can’t just snap our fingers and hire people and put them on the street trained. It takes a while to do that. So it’s going to take us a while,” Smith said.
Smith said he’s gotten all that he requested for his agency.