Samuel Jones was 22 and living in Lehigh Acres when he was shot dead on December 15, 2017, alongside a friend, Eric Young, in a double homicide at a home on Park Road. Both men, who had been friends since playing high school football for the Riverdale Raiders, were found in a room after bullets penetrated a back window of the house. The Lee County Sheriff’s Office responded and opened an investigation; no immediate arrests were reported and the motive remained unclear.

The killings stirred unrest in the area. An altercation at Edison Mall in Fort Myers was reported afterward and was said by some participants to have been sparked by Jones’s murder. An earlier Facebook post by Jones on the day of the shooting has been noted as chilling by those discussing the case. Anyone with information about the shooting or the shooters is asked to come forward.