
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Family members and friends gathered Saturday for a vigil to remember a 20-year-old man who was killed Wednesday in a double shooting in Arlington.
Craig Aiken said the vigil was about remembering his son, Craivon Aiken, in a positive light – as someone who lived the life he wanted and loved his family.
The double shooting was reported around 6:30 a.m. Wednesday at The Square at 59 Caroline Apartments, an apartment complex on Fort Caroline Road in the University Park neighborhood. A 17-year-old Ribault High School student faces multiple charges — including car theft and possession of a firearm by a juvenile delinquent — in connection with the shooting, but he has not been charged in the killings.
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The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office said a witness inside the apartment called 911, and Aiken said when police arrived they found one man, identified by family as Craivon Aiken, and another man dead.
Craig Aiken said that since he found out Wednesday that his son was killed, the days have been cloudy and he has had a hard time dealing with reality. He said it’s hard knowing one of his children is no longer with him, especially since just six years ago he was reunited with his daughter Kamiyah Mobley 18 years after she was kidnapped from a Jacksonville hospital shortly after birth in 1998 .
Craig Aiken said Craivon Aiken was the youngest of eight children and leaves behind two of his own.
Craig Aiken said that even though Craivon Aiken was younger than Mobley, he treated her like a little sister when the family reunited with her.
He also said that he wants to help ensure that something like this does not happen to other families.
“I would like people to take this as an example, this can happen to your child too, you know what I’m saying,” Craig Aiken said Saturday. “I just want people to talk to their kids, take care of their kids and get as close as you can with your kids because you can lose one of them in this world at any moment.”
Police have said the motive for the shooting is unclear, but it is early in the investigation.
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