JACKSONVILLE, Fla — As of early November, First Coast News has tracked 326 shootings in Jacksonville in 2021.
That’s nearly a shooting every day in Jacksonville this year.
There's a separate tracker from the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office and it will update in just a few weeks with official end of the year numbers, but we can tell you now the number has gone up.
How does this impact our community?
Multiply each shooting by the person’s friends and family. One shooting creates a ripple effect of trauma.
For 26-year-old Keevon Mosley, he's taking his trauma and channeling it into music.
“So this was about 3 years ago," Mosley said as he walked First Coast News around a home in North Jacksonville about 3 miles from downtown.
"Three years ago right here someone came through, and they came shooting. I checked myself to make sure I was okay. I was not hit. Then I head my cousin yell out I can’t get up. I’m hit. I looked right there. Puddle of blood. I picked him up and took him to the hospital.”
This experience has shaped Mosley, but it wasn't his first time impacted by gun violence.
“That was the first time that I’ve seen a puddle of blood. It took months to get the smell of blood out of my car," Mosley said. "But it wasn’t the first person I had lost to a shooting or gun violence.”
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The first time someone he loved was killed was when he was 16. 10 years later, he’s releasing an album to release his feelings that for so long have been pent up.
He released an album called "Legacy". He recited lyrics from the first track. “It’s almost summertime. Too much free time. So these kids get locked up in the meantime," Mosley wrote.
“In summertime, that is when we lose a lot of people," said Mosley. "A lot of kids have free time in their hands. A lot of trouble on the streets.”
He’s been slowly writing songs on this album for years, not realizing his trauma was moving his pen along the page.
Mosley is an advocate for therapy and mental health. He says 10% of the proceeds he makes from his music will go to paying for therapy for those who need it.
He goes by Q’Villa and you can find his music now streaming on Spotify and other platforms.