In the afternoon of June 11, 2025, outside Copeland’s of New Orleans at Southside Boulevard and Touchton Road in Jacksonville, Kenneth Nathaniel Mobley Jr., 38, male, was shot in the chest in a restaurant parking lot. First responders rushed Kenneth Nathaniel Mobley Jr., 38, to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Investigators later noted that Kenneth Nathaniel Mobley Jr., 38, had gone there to meet someone, a meeting whose purpose remained unclear amid a heavy police presence
that included a helicopter, drone, and K-9 teams as diners and nearby shoppers were startled by the gunfire. He was just days away from his 39th birthday.
Detectives from the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office began canvassing witnesses and processing evidence in the parking lot, and within weeks identified 24-year-old Josiah Luis Martinez as the suspected gunman in the killing of Kenneth Nathaniel Mobley Jr., 38. An arrest warrant was issued on July 25, 2025, and with the assistance of the U.S. Marshals Task Force, Martinez was taken into custody on July 28. He was booked into the John E. Goode Pretrial Detention Facility on a charge of second-degree murder and remained jailed.
As the case grew, detectives continued to track those believed to have helped after the shooting of Kenneth Nathaniel Mobley Jr., 38. On August 17, 2025, they announced a second arrest: 24-year-old Natania Ribot, identified as the driver who ferried the shooter away from the scene. Ribot was charged with accessory after the fact in the murder and was held in the Duval County jail, as the investigation pressed on with appeals for additional information.
In the wake of the violence that ended the life of Kenneth Nathaniel Mobley Jr., 38, his family prepared to lay him to rest, sharing funeral details with the community as loved ones remembered a father whose birthday was approaching and whose absence left a sudden, aching quiet. Services were scheduled for late June at We’re For Jesus Ministries, with visitation the evening prior, marking a solemn close to a month that had begun with hope and ordinary plans.
