On the afternoon of November 24, 2025, gunfire shattered the quiet around Lucille Johnson Park on Mary Street in Milton, Florida. Milton Police responded at about 4:30 p.m. to reports of multiple shots fired and found Tervon Jackson lying near the park with several gunshot wounds; despite immediate efforts by first responders, he was pronounced dead at the scene.
Tervon Jackson, a 31-year-old male was later identified as the victim, and his death was quickly recognized in local coverage and on national gun-violence memorial sites as another life lost to a sudden act of gunfire.
Witnesses told police they saw three males running from the area immediately after the shooting, two of them wearing masks that partially covered their faces. Using surveillance footage from nearby homes and businesses along with witness photographs, investigators were able to circulate images of the fleeing men to responding officers. A K-9 unit then tracked a scent trail from the park to a wooded, marshy area near Pine Street, where officers discovered three males hiding in the water who matched the descriptions. Nearby, police recovered additional clothing believed to have been used as disguises, along with two semi-automatic handguns consistent with what witnesses had described at the scene.
All three men were detained and taken to the Milton Police Department for questioning. After interviews and initial investigative work, 21-year-old Jayden Jamarco Wright was arrested and charged with murder under a “dangerous depraved/homicide” statute, identified in some reports as second-degree murder. He was booked into the Santa Rosa County Jail without bond, and police noted that the seized firearms were sent to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement for forensic analysis while an autopsy was completed on Jackson. Investigators have emphasized that, as of the most recent reporting, Wright is the only individual formally charged in connection with the killing; the case remains open, with authorities reviewing evidence and asking anyone with additional information to come forward to assist in the ongoing investigation.
In the days after the shooting, Jackson's family painted a picture of a devoted father and community-minded man whose life ended on the same street where his own father grew up. His father, Tony Jackson, spoke at a press conference alongside Milton Police Chief Jennifer Frank, calling the killing senseless and insisting that his son was not a violent person but someone who had moved back to Milton to be closer to family and to “do good things in the community.” Relatives described him as a loving father of two young children, a caring son and brother, and a talented musician whose death has left a profound void. Chief Frank publicly stated that Wright and Jackson knew each other and had arranged to meet at Lucille Johnson Park that day to address personal issues, stressing that the encounter was not random but an intentional meeting that escalated into lethal violence. As the community mourns, the combination of a swift arrest, an active investigation, and the family's appeals for understanding and change underscore both the gravity of the loss and the lingering questions about how a planned meeting between acquaintances turned into a fatal shooting in a neighborhood many residents describe as otherwise peaceful.
