Robert Bryant

Robert Bryant was a 37-year-old African-American man who was, by all accounts, well-loved. His best friend, Tristan Jones, remembered him as a man who was full of smiles. "Everybody loved that man," Jones said. A husband and a father of three, Robert was celebrating his birthday with hundreds of friends and family at the Vibe Night Club in Jacksonville, Florida, on the night of September 8, 2016.

The celebration turned to tragedy in the early hours of the next morning. Around 3:30 a.m. on September 9, Robert and his wife, Selina Bryant, were driving home from the party in a rented Jaguar. They had just exited Interstate 95 and were waiting at a stoplight at the intersection of Kings Road in Northwest Jacksonville. As they sat in their car, a second vehicle pulled up next to them. Someone inside opened fire.

The gunfire shattered the front passenger window where Robert was sitting, fatally wounding him. Selina was also shot but survived with non-life-threatening injuries. After the shooting, the other vehicle drove off. Despite her wounds, Selina managed to drive about two miles to a well-lit Shell gas station to get help.

The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office launched an investigation into the drive-by shooting, but the case proved difficult. Almost a year after her son’s death, Robert’s mother, Tracy Bryant, spoke of the randomness of the violence. "They just started shooting at him," she said. "They didn’t know the people they were shooting at. They shot all up the car." She was still desperate for answers, asking, "I just need some closure; let me know what happened and why?"

As of August 2017, detectives were still working on the case, but no suspects had been identified and no arrests had been made. The murder of Robert Bryant remains unsolved.