JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office has once again recorded 100 murders in this city, according to the JSO’s Transparency page and News 6 partner News4JAX.
So far, there have been 101 murder cases, and of those, 62 cases are still open and have not been cleared by arrest.
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Mary Rose Veneziale told News4JAX she reaches out to JSO every week for updates on her son’s case.
Dylonn Bealle Veneziale, 23, was shot and found dead near Alderman Road and Eddy Road in Arlington in June.
“As time passes the pain gets worse, not better. I can barely talk about him without many tears falling. And whoever is responsible for taking my son from me and his brother and our family, remember that justice will prevail, and you will be brought to justice sooner than later,” Veneziale said.
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On Tuesday, Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters said solving cases can sometimes take two days or two years.
But he said their units never stop working.
“As soon as we get a bit of information, we go to moving again, we’ve increased the size of that unit, to give them more time between on-call days, and to focus on the cases that they’re working. So there’s a lot that’s happening, a lot is going on, and you’ll see that improve throughout the year,” Waters said.
Violent crime started slow this year, with a 20% decrease, according to News4JAX records.
Nine of the 101 cases on JSO’s Transparency page had more than one person murdered.
Four of those cases were cleared by arrest — including the case of Iris Williams.
Williams is accused of shooting and killing two men and holding a woman hostage last week.
“I know that they recognize full well that this is not video games. This is real life. I don’t think they take into account sometimes when they’re spraying bullets that there’s a three-year-old present a six-year-old present. And that’s horrible to me,” said Waters. “We’re going to continue to focus on gang members on shooters that we know are shooters, because I think the problem could be a lot worse in a city like Jacksonville is large. So it is with a population that we have. I think we’re doing okay, but we can do a lot better.”
If you have any information on the long list of unsolved murders, call JSO at 904-630-0500 or Crime Stoppers at 1-866-845-TIPS.
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