JACKSONVILLE BEACH, Fla. – A permanent memorial will be placed at the Seawalk Pavilion in Jacksonville Beach, where a 23-year-old man was shot and killed only hours after the city's Fourth of July fireworks display, the mayor said Thursday.
Glen McNeil Jr. died in a double shooting about 1 a.m. July 5 near the intersection of First Avenue North and First Street North.
Jacksonville Beach Mayor Charlie Latham on Thursday confirmed by phone to News4Jax that there will be a permanent plaque placed in the ground where McNeil was gunned down, replacing a makeshift memorial formed by loved ones.
The mayor's announcement came after a petition seeking a permanent memorial received more than 3,000 signatures.
In the proposal, McNeil's friends reached out to Latham, saying, "Hear us, we are your youth, we want the violence to stop, we are tired of burying our friends."
Within the next couple weeks, Latham said, McNeil's loved ones will be honored during a special presentation of the plaque.
"We're happy. We can't wait for the day," said Gloria Chaplin, McNeil's aunt.
Chaplin told News4Jax that she said and the family is very appreciate of Latham's decision to honor their loved one.
"It makes us feel wonderful and awesome. I want to say this first, 'Thank you to the mayor of Jacksonville Beach,'" Chaplin said. "It's so exciting to hear that he said, 'OK.'"
Chaplin said she hopes the memorial will motivate whoever killed her nephew to come forward.
"We hope they come forward and we pray every day -- each and every day -- we pray whoever the shooter was and whoever he or she is that they come forward," Chaplin said. "We pray for the shooter as well, and his family."
Jacksonville Beach police said they met Thursday about the status of the investigation into the shooting death, but there's no update in the case.