{"id":371858,"date":"2026-08-15T01:10:22","date_gmt":"2026-08-15T01:10:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/371858\/"},"modified":"2026-08-15T01:10:22","modified_gmt":"2026-08-15T01:10:22","slug":"we-love-you-chace-community-gathers-to-honor-7-year-old-found-in-northside-retention-pond","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/371858\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018We love you, Chace\u2019: Community gathers to honor 7-year-old found in Northside retention pond"},"content":{"rendered":"

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 Dozens of people gathered on Jacksonville\u2019s Northside Friday night for a candlelight vigil honoring 7-year-old Chace Brown<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Chace was found earlier this month in a retention pond after going missing from his home, according to the Jacksonville Sheriff\u2019s Office. They said no foul play is suspected.<\/p>\n

Candles were lit at the base of a memorial near the pond, with family, friends, and neighbors leaving balloons and stuffed animals \u2014 including characters like Elmo, Bluey, and Cookie Monster \u2014 to remember the boy teachers and loved ones described as happy and full of energy.<\/p>\n

Chace Brown (News4Jax)<\/p>\n

\u201cA little bittersweet \u2019cause, I mean, they explained Chace perfectly\u2026 full of energy. Always smiling\u2026 and all he do is give good hugs,\u201d Chace\u2019s father, Lamonte Brown, said after hearing comments from Chace\u2019s teachers during the vigil.<\/p>\n

At Friday\u2019s vigil, Brown said he is still trying to work through the loss.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe in God so I feel like that\u2019s helping me during this whole process\u2026 but I\u2019m still processing,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Brown described his son as playful and often quiet until he warmed up to people.<\/p>\n

Brown also became emotional when asked what he will remember most about his son.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe day he was born\u2026 when I held him,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

A GoFundMe has been created to help the family with funeral expenses. You can find the link HERE<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The vigil ended with the crowd chanting, \u201cWe love you, Chace,\u201d as candles continued to flicker beside the memorial.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 Dozens of people gathered on Jacksonville\u2019s Northside Friday night for a candlelight vigil honoring 7-year-old…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":371859,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[116,118,117,1416,2808],"class_list":["post-371858","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news","tag-northside","tag-retention-pond"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371858","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=371858"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371858\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/371859"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=371858"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=371858"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=371858"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}