The Lives Lost to the Jacksonville Gunman
Ms. Carr, an Uber driver, had just dropped off a friend at the store when the gunman began shooting at her car.
“She would give her shirt off her back for people,” her son, Chayvaughn Payne, said.
On social media, the adult children of Ms. Carr have described heavy hearts and profound pain.
“I am broken,” Armisha Payne, one of her children, wrote. “She was my everything even on the worst days.”
Ms. Carr’s pastor, Dr. Green, said at a news conference that she was a loving and caring mother.
“Her family was raised in this church,” Dr. Green said. “She was a person who was a provider who provided for her family.”
Alisa Carey, Mr. Gallion’s sister, said on Monday that she was in a state of shock. “It’s still unbelievable,” she said.
Ms. Carey, 46, described her brother as “a great father” and said that she wanted to keep her brother’s memory alive. “He lost his life because someone hated our race so bad,” she said.
On Sunday evening, a dozen local faith leaders, including Mr. Gallion’s pastor, Bishop John E. Guns of St. Paul Missionary Baptist Church, prayed for the victims. Mr. Gallion is the 33rd person from the church to be murdered during the 27 years that Bishop Guns has presided there, he said.
“He was not a gangster. He was not a thug,” Bishop Guns told hundreds of mourners on Sunday. “He was a father who gave his life to Jesus and was trying to get it together.” He added: “I wept in church today like a baby because my heart is tired. We are exhausted.”
At a vigil on Monday night Mr. Gallion’s family and friends were quiet in their grief.
Je Asia, Mr. Gallion’s 4-year-old daughter, stood by a cross with her father’s name written on it, pink and white beads hanging from her long, braided hair.
Sabrina Rozier, whose daughter had separated from Mr. Gallion but was co-parenting their daughter with him, said on Sunday that the family had not told the girl what had happened to her father. He spent weekends with his daughter and worked two or three jobs to support her, Ms. Rozier said
“She knows something has happened,” she said. “I don’t know how to tell her.”
The day before, Ms. Rozier said she wished she could tell Mr. Gallion that they will make sure his daughter has a good life.
“We will keep your daughter wrapped up,” she said. “You keep looking down on us, but we got your baby.”
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