Family seeks answers six years after 15-year-old shot, killed on westside

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. —

Demontre Franklin was 15 years-old when he was shot and killed outside the Eureka Garden Apartments on Jacksonville’s westside. Jacksonville Sheriff’s officers found the teen with multiple gun shot wounds in his back.

Now, six years later, the family still seeks justice.

Franklin was murdered Oct. 27, 2014. On Saturday, family members gathered to honor his life and to continue pushing for answers.

“Everybody loved Demontre,” said his aunt, Tyshell Franklin. The family hasn’t received any answers from the community. They stood beside MAD DADS, Men Against Destruction Defending Against Drugs and Social Disorder, encouraging anyone who knows something to speak up.

Donald Foy, the president of Jacksonville’s MAD DADS chapter, said the community must break the code of silence and speak up to law enforcement if they want to bring an end to the violence.

Action News Jax did some digging to find at least 30 shootings for the month as of Oct. 24. At least seven people were killed and 38 were injured. A suspect is on the run in a majority of the shootings.

The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office “is not there when it happens. You can’t expect them to solve it if we don’t tell what we know,” Foy said.

He added that the violence once was isolated to the northside but has since spread all across the city. “It’s a Jacksonville problem,” he told Action News Jax’s Robert Grant.

On Friday, Action News Jax spoke to Pastor Mark Griffin, chairman of the Jacksonville Crime Reduction Commission, after a string of shootings in Arlington. Griffin said he believes a majority of the violence is retaliatory and that suspects knows the victims.

Anyone with information on any crime, including the death of Demontre Franklin, is asked to contact the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office at 630-0500, email at jsocrimetips@jaxsheriff.org, or the hotline at 866-845-TIPS.

Cox Media Group