PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – One week after Jason Chatham and Melissa Wood were killed in a double shooting outside a Walgreens in Ponte Vedra Beach, Chatham’s family is grieving the unforeseen loss.
Chatham’s niece, Aliya Jade, said she is still struggling to process what happened. “I didn’t really know how to respond in that moment,” Jade said. “I wanted it to be a bad dream. I didn’t want it to be true.” She added that accepting the loss won’t come easily. “It’s gonna be hard to accept it. I can’t accept it and I won’t and I don’t want to, but I’m gonna have to eventually. But right now it’s still kind of a fresh wound,” she said.
While many people learned Chatham’s name through headlines in the days after the shooting, Jade said friends and family knew him as “Uncle Dirt” and “the life of the party.” She said he wasn’t only an uncle to her, but a familiar presence to many people around him. “He was Uncle Dirt, not just to me, but to everybody,” Jade said. “To any kid he knew, really.”
Jade described Chatham as someone who brought energy wherever he went. “If you wanted to have a good time, he was loud, and he brought the energy,” she said.
Chatham also leaves behind his son, Blade, who is 11 and turns 12 next week. Jade said the family tried to maintain a sense of normalcy for him after the loss. The day after the shooting, Blade still chose to play the game his father loved to see him play, which is baseball. “We gave him the option to play,” Jade said. “He said, ‘I’m going to play — that’s what my daddy would want me to do.’ And he went out there, and he did his thing and played his heart out.”
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As the family navigates life’s milestones without Chatham, they’re leaning on one another for support. They held an early birthday celebration for Blade while trying to hold onto the memories they cherish most. Jade said she’s grateful for one last exchange with her uncle. “The last thing I got to tell him was, I love you,” she said.
Authorities said 32-year-old Christian Barrios is charged with two counts of first-degree murder and other felony charges in connection with the shooting. He is being held without bond.