JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 Family and friends returned to a Westside Burger King on Wednesday to honor Matthew Jackson, an 18-year-old who was killed at the restaurant while trying to break up a fight.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m changing the narrative and want to give back,\u201d said Natasha Jackson, Matthew\u2019s mother. \u201cEven though something very, very big was taken from me, I decided that in my son\u2019s name, I\u2019m gonna give it back to the community.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jackson spent Wednesday afternoon at the restaurant with family and friends handing out meals and paying for customer orders. <\/p>\n
She called the event \u201cJackson\u2019s Takeover,\u201d a peaceful action intended to reclaim a place that has been associated with pain for her family.<\/p>\n
PREVIOUS COVERAGE: 18-year-old shot, killed when he tried to stop fight while working at Westside Burger King, report reveals<\/a> | High school senior killed in shooting at Westside Burger King to be laid to rest 2 weeks after his murder<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a peaceful takeover because this place symbolized so much pain these past four months that I\u2019m taking it back with love,\u201d she explained. <\/p>\n Jackson\u2019s family paid for meals for anyone who came through the drive-thru or into the restaurant in Matthew\u2019s honor.<\/p>\n It was the first time Matthew\u2019s sister, Kierstan Jackson, had returned to that Burger King since the shooting. Family members said the gathering helped shift grief toward action.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s very inspiring, you know, to see my mom doing it and not her just in the corner crying,\u201d Kierstan said. \u201cAnd she\u2019s actually bringing some light into it.\u201d<\/p>\n Natasha said Matthew was known to regular customers and often received praise online for his work at the restaurant.<\/p>\n \u201cMost of his customers came through that window, they know him by name,\u201d she said. \u201cHe used to get so many good comments on Google reviews because he was just a good person. Serving was his thing. So I felt as though that to honor my son, that would be the right thing to do.\u201d<\/p>\n Jackson\u2019s mother said she plans to continue community work through a foundation she\u2019s calling Matthew\u2019s Legacy of Light.<\/p>\n Police say Dawud Burritt shot and killed Jackson. He was arrested and is in custody at the Duval County Jail awaiting trial.<\/p>\n A pretrial hearing is scheduled for April 15. <\/p>\n Copyright 2026 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 Family and friends returned to a Westside Burger King on Wednesday to honor Matthew Jackson,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":197282,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[502,116,118,117,10315],"class_list":["post-197281","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-community","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news","tag-westside"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197281","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=197281"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197281\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/197282"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=197281"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=197281"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=197281"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}