Baker County family pushes for answers in man's shooting death

FDLE investigating Macclenny shooting involving retired deputy's relative

MACCLENNY, Fla. – Baker County parents continue to push for answers in their 31-year-old son's shooting death.

The parents of Dominic Jerome "DJ" Broadus II held a town hall meeting Tuesday evening in Macclenny in hopes of rallying community support and getting more information. 

Deputies answering a shooting call about 4 p.m. Feb. 3 at a home on Southern States Nursery Road found Broadus lying dead on the ground near the rear of the home located on a large rural property, according to an incident report.

The heavily redacted report does not specify what led up to the shooting. The Baker County Sheriff's Office asked the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to take over the investigation, an FDLE spokeswoman previously told News4Jax

But since then, his parents said that even their most basic questions about the case have gone unanswered. They said they're worried it could be the result of a cover-up. 

Dozens of people -- including Broadus' immediate family, and several advocacy groups from around the state and the country -- showed up at a church for Tuesday evening's town hall meeting in hopes of getting answers.

"This is part of justice for DJ. That's why it's important for me. It's justice for my son," Dominic Broadus Sr. said. "He was killed execution style. It was an evil crime. It was heinous, and we’re here to make sure that my son and ... my grandson’s father has justice done for this murder."

According to the incident report, a 29-year-old man who is related to a retired Baker County Sheriff's deputy, was taken in for questioning, but never charged. 

The Broaduses said they fear that connection could be preventing transparency in the investigation. 

Seven days after the killing, family members said, even their most basic questions to law enforcement haven't been answered. 

"It's a shame that this was the medium in which we had to come together. Somebody's dead. We don't have answers, and that brought people together," said Nailah Summers with Dream Defenders. "There’s so much information that they don’t have. We went through a list of 23 questions that the family had for the FDLE and maybe ... one or two of them had an answer. So, first and foremost, I hope that they get some kind of closure. I hope they get the information that they need, you know, what happened to their son."

It's not clear what connection, if any, Broadus had to the 29-year-old man or why he was on that man's family's private property.

"We can’t wait 60, 90 days for them to tell us that he’s off or this is self-defense or this is stand your ground or an accidental shooting," Broadus Sr. said. "Not the way my son was killed. Not the way he was shot."

Broadus' father said regardless of what really happened, his son's killer is still walking free.

"We're going to patiently wait for the investigation," he said. "But at the end of the investigation, we expect, and we better see, arrests."

News4Jax attempted to reach out to the 29-year-old man for comment Tuesday night, but the call was not returned. 

FDLE said it cannot publicly comment on an ongoing investigation.