{"id":221630,"date":"2025-09-12T19:18:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-12T19:18:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/221630\/"},"modified":"2025-09-12T19:18:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-12T19:18:09","slug":"jacksonville-mother-calls-for-justice-after-son-killed-in-shooting-outside-apartment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/221630\/","title":{"rendered":"Jacksonville mother calls for justice after son killed in shooting outside apartment"},"content":{"rendered":"

JACKSONVILLE, Fla.<\/strong> \u2013 A grieving Jacksonville mother is calling for justice after her teenage son, known as a bright light in his community, was shot and killed outside their apartment late last month.<\/p>\n

Myesha Johnston said Aug. 27 started like any other. Her son, Princepaul Hodges, had just brought home an orange soda for his younger sister, handed it to her, and went upstairs to his room. Minutes later, gunshots rang out.<\/p>\n

According to the Jacksonville Sheriff\u2019s Office, around 8:50 p.m., officers responded to an apartment complex on King Street. When they arrived, officers found Hodges suffering from gunshot wounds.<\/p>\n

Hodges was transported to a hospital, where he died.<\/p>\n

He was 18 years old.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wasn\u2019t thinking anything about my son,\u201d Johnston said. \u201cThen maybe six or seven minutes later, someone was banging on my door. It was a neighbor, saying my son was shot.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said she rushed to get to him, but her body wouldn\u2019t cooperate. Living with multiple sclerosis, her legs trembled as she tried to run down the steps. <\/p>\n

\u201cMy leg was just shaking out of control. I got down the steps as fast as I could, and he was lying at the top of the landing, sideways, with a bullet in his back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Princepaul\u2019s death has left a hole in both his family and their small community. The family had moved to Jacksonville from New York and didn\u2019t have many relatives nearby. But Hodges easily formed friendships.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was very loving, very caring. He helped people he didn\u2019t even know,\u201d Johnston said. \u201cI still sit in my chair thinking he\u2019s going to come running up the steps.\u201d<\/p>\n

Princepaul Hodges was killed in a shooting in late August. (Copyright 2025 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.)<\/p>\n

Neighbors and even strangers have stopped to talk about how kind he was. <\/p>\n

\u201cPeople were saying he was such a sweet kid, such a light, so fun,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

According to his mother, Hodges was working toward getting his driver\u2019s license and dreamed of starting his own lawn care business. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe wanted to buy a truck and be his own boss,\u201d his mother said. \u201cAn entrepreneur at a very young age.\u201d<\/p>\n

Instead, she\u2019s now preparing to bury her son. His body was transported back to New York, where most of their extended family lives. <\/p>\n

She said she plans to move back there as well \u2014 staying in Jacksonville feels impossible.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want to stay here,\u201d she said softly. \u201cThe last place I saw my son was on those steps, where his body was.\u201d<\/p>\n

As she begins the painful process of planning her son\u2019s funeral, she remains in disbelief.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wish I could just do the 27th all over again,\u201d she said. \u201cI can\u2019t bring him back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Johnston created a GoFundMe<\/a> fundraiser to help with her son\u2019s funeral expenses.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2025 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 A grieving Jacksonville mother is calling for justice after her teenage son, known as a…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":221631,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5136],"tags":[5229,3188,723,7310,8423,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-221630","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jacksonville","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-fl","10":"tag-florida","11":"tag-jacksonville","12":"tag-jso","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-united-states-of-america","15":"tag-unitedstates","16":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","17":"tag-us","18":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115192942443442766","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221630","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=221630"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221630\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/221631"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=221630"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=221630"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=221630"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}