{"id":268194,"date":"2025-10-01T03:48:18","date_gmt":"2025-10-01T03:48:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/268194\/"},"modified":"2025-10-01T03:48:18","modified_gmt":"2025-10-01T03:48:18","slug":"18-year-old-arrested-for-murder-of-jacksonville-father-defending-his-property-police-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/268194\/","title":{"rendered":"18-year-old arrested for murder of Jacksonville father defending his property, police say"},"content":{"rendered":"

An 18-year-old is now being charged with murder four months after the death of a Jacksonville father.<\/p>\n

The Jacksonville Sheriff\u2019s Office announced Tuesday that it arrested Andre Thomas for murder in connection with the shooting of Donte Swan in May.<\/p>\n

\"Andre<\/p>\n

Andre Thomas, 18, was arrested for the murder of Donte Swan in May 2025.<\/p>\n

>>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

JSO said he was killed while trying to stop a group of men, including Thomas, from breaking into cars at a home on Wheat Road. Action News Jax spoke with Swan\u2019s fianc\u00e9<\/a>, Iesha Gibson, in May. She said they saw the group through their home security system, and Swan had fired a warning shot to scare them off. That\u2019s when police said Andre Thomas pulled out a pistol and shot him twice before leaving the scene.<\/p>\n

Detectives reportedly determined that the group had driven to the home in a previously stolen car. Five people were believed to be involved at the time.<\/p>\n

Thomas has since pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder, armed burglary, and attempted armed burglary. Although Thomas was 17 at the time of the incident, the State Attorney\u2019s Office told JSO it would be charging him as an adult.<\/p>\n

[DOWNLOAD: <\/b>Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks<\/b><\/a>]<\/b><\/p>\n

“Even with the gunman behind bars, our investigation doesn\u2019t end,” wrote JSO. \u201cWe\u2019re still investigating and working to hold everyone involved in this case responsible for their actions.”<\/p>\n

In May, his fianc\u00e9 called it a random act of violence.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey took someone away from us that didn\u2019t deserve it. He was a great father, provider for us, all of us. This was not about drugs. It was just a senseless act. These kids are going around the block just checking people\u2019s cars, and it so happened, we were just one of the families that they got to.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thomas\u2019s first pretrial hearing is scheduled for October 6.<\/p>\n

[SIGN UP: <\/b>Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter<\/b><\/a>] <\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An 18-year-old is now being charged with murder four months after the death of a Jacksonville father. The…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":268195,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5136],"tags":[5229,139701,139702,3188,723,139703,7310,8423,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-268194","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jacksonville","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-andre-thomas","10":"tag-donte-swan","11":"tag-fl","12":"tag-florida","13":"tag-iesha-gibson","14":"tag-jacksonville","15":"tag-jso","16":"tag-united-states","17":"tag-united-states-of-america","18":"tag-unitedstates","19":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","20":"tag-us","21":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115296869081510367","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268194","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=268194"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268194\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/268195"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=268194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=268194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=268194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}