JACKSONVILLE, Fla — Community nonprofit First Coast Crime Stoppers says a tip to their organization led to the arrests of two teenagers in the death of 7-year-old Breon Allen.
“It’s huge,” says First Coast Crime Stoppers Executive Director Chase Robinson. “It really speaks to the power of the community, and I think there is a need for the community to stand up and to really fight back against acts of violence like those that killed young Breon Allen.”
Allen was killed back in January in a drive-by shooting outside his home near Commonwealth Avenue and Almeda Street on Jacksonville’s Westside. Allen’s older cousin, Lafayette Mango Jr., was injured in the shooting. The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office says the shooting was “gang-related” and Mango was the intended target.
Robinson says the person who submitted the tip will receive a reward of $25,000. “The enhanced reward, going as high as it did up to $25,000, speaks to how members of the community want to take action, and one way they can do that is by donating those funds to our enhanced reward program to increase notoriety of these cases. To bring Crime Stoppers into the daily lives of those in our community and really just provide them a resource to get that information out and to do it safely, securely, and anonymously.”
To help maintain anonymity and pay out the reward, Robinson says Crime Stoppers will send the tipster will send a pick up code to give to a bank. “We partner with multiple banks in the area, and all our tipsters have to do is go up to the bank, they go to the drive thru teller, they can drive their car, ride their bike, walk, whatever means that they have, they simply write that reward pick up code on a piece of paper, slip it in the drive thru tube, send it back to the bank teller and, because the bank tellers we work with are specifically trained in paying out Crime Stopper tips, they match the reward pick up code with the documentation we already sent them, to then put the already cash reward in an envelope, send it back down the tube and the tipster walks off.”
You can donate to First Coast Crime Stoppers on its website.
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