JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A 21-year-old man who was found dead of gunshot wound in his Westside home "didn't deserve the travesty that happened to him," his mother said Tuesday.
Jahleel George, 21, was found dead about 4:30 a.m. Monday in the home on Woodcrest Road, near Cassat Avenue, the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office said.
According to the police report, he had been shot in his kitchen.
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His mother, Shari George, said Jahleel was a father who had intense love for his little girl, a straight-A student in his third year of college and an all-around good person.
“Jahleel was definitely an exceptional young man, and I’m not just saying that because I’m his mother. You can ask anyone, from teachers to college professors to people that just met him. He was a great young man and didn’t deserve the travesty that happened to him," Shari said.
Shari said she got the call early Monday morning and rushed to her son's home, where police were blocking the area off.
“My mother was out there. My daughters were out there. We couldn’t get anyone to give us any kind of information. I ran around from hospital to hospital, hoping they could say they had a gunshot victim," Shari said.
That turned out to be false hope. Just before 11 a.m., police informed the family that Jahleel was dead -- nearly three hours after JSO told the media that a person was deceased inside, but a warrant was needed to enter the home.
Shari said she's upset it took so long for her family to find out and that Jahleel's daughter will now grow up without her father.
"She definitely has a support system, a grandmother that will be by her side every day of her life," she said.
The entire family is heartbroken, but Shari said they're also determined to find out who killed her son and why.
"No stone will go unturned. They will figure out what happened, and this is not going to go away," she said.
News4Jax crime and safety analyst Gil Smith explained that the delay in family notification could have been for numerous reasons, saying police may not have wanted the information out there until they processed the scene and confirmed certain aspects of the investigation.
Anyone with information about Jahleet's shooting death is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 1-866-845-TIPS.