{"id":125952,"date":"2026-01-21T05:18:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-21T05:18:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/125952\/"},"modified":"2026-01-21T05:18:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-21T05:18:09","slug":"you-have-a-freedom-expiration-date-jacksonville-families-demand-justice-at-candlelight-vigil","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/125952\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;You have a freedom expiration date&#8217;: Jacksonville families demand justice at candlelight vigil"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Jacksonville families lit candles at Project Cold Case&#8217;s Hour of Hope vigil fighting for witnesses to come forward in unsolved murders.<\/p>\n<p>JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 Many families gathered Tuesday at Friendship Fountain, lighting candles and sharing stories of loss during <a href=\"https:\/\/projectcoldcase.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Project Cold Case<\/a>&#8216;s Hour of Hope vigil as they called for justice in unsolved homicides.<\/p>\n<p>The emotional event was filled with heartfelt pleas from relatives, including Rose Devoe, whose 23-year-old son, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.firstcoastnews.com\/article\/news\/unsolved-mother-pleads-for-answers-in-the-death-of-her-son-gabriel-devoe\/77-f06b95e8-8051-4074-bdde-2d0c1dcc5a0a\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Gabriel Devoe<\/a>, was shot and killed in an Arlington apartment complex parking lot in November 2022.<\/p>\n<p>Gabriel, a Valdosta State University senior studying health care administration and a former standout football player at Paxon School, had returned home for a visit just one semester shy of graduation.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;My son&#8217;s blood is crying for justice from the pavement, and someone who knows something can answer that call, and I ask you to do that today,&#8221; Devoe said.<\/p>\n<p>She described her son as a &#8220;miracle baby&#8221; who beat the odds and lit up every room with his energy.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I didn&#8217;t get to have the mother-son dance with my son,&#8221; she said. &#8220;To see him marry the love of his life, to raise a family. My son was about to graduate from college. He was embarking upon his life. Everything that he&#8217;d worked so hard for was taken from him that day.<\/p>\n<p>Devoe directly addressed her son&#8217;s killer at the vigil.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I speak to you murderer,&#8221; she said. &#8220;This day, I will let you know. You have a freedom expiration date, and it is coming.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Similar grief echoed from the family of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.firstcoastnews.com\/article\/news\/local\/were-still-heartbroken-one-year-later-no-arrest-made-in-the-murder-of-rashaud-fields\/77-196f622c-b904-4ba5-90fd-bb409373b10c\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Rashaud Fields<\/a>, an 18-year-old Raines High School football star with a full scholarship to Keiser University. Fields was shot to death hours after his high school graduation celebration on May 23, 2022, near Pine Estates Road.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;He would always say, one day the whole world would know my name, and never would we ever thought that in death that the whole world would know his name,&#8221; one family member told\u00a0First Coast News.<\/p>\n<p>His family urged witnesses to speak up.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It doesn&#8217;t matter if it&#8217;s today or tomorrow if you know something, say something,&#8221; the family said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>His mother also read a &#8220;letter to our killers,&#8221; saying, &#8220;I know you see the support of all of us. For me, receiving justice has grown bigger and bigger.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Families sang together, held a moment of silence and swapped memories of loved ones whose lives were cut short.<\/p>\n<p>Project Cold Case, a nonprofit aiding families of unsolved homicide victims, hosted the event to foster community and healing while pushing for accountability.<\/p>\n<p>Anyone with information on these deaths is asked to call the Jacksonville Sheriff&#8217;s Office at (904) 630-0500 or Crime Stoppers at (866) 845-8477. Callers to Crime Stoppers may remain anonymous and could be eligible for a reward.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jacksonville families lit candles at Project Cold Case&#8217;s Hour of Hope vigil fighting for witnesses to come forward&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":125953,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[116,118,117],"class_list":["post-125952","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125952","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=125952"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125952\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/125953"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=125952"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=125952"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=125952"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}