MIDDLEBURG, Fla. — The death of a former Ridgeview High School football player, shocked his friends and family in Middleburg.
A candlelight vigil filled the back porch of Southern Social in Middleburg Saturday night as hundreds gathered to say goodbye to 22-year-old Julian Valle, who was killed early Saturday morning.
“He was always super happy, full of energy, loved everyone," said Valle's friend Tyler Thial.
Thial spent more than a decade around that energy of his childhood friend Julian Valle.
Friends and family of Valle say he was shot and killed near the Clay County and Putnam County border. The shooting has Thial thinking about some of the memories they made along the way.
"We do Ginnie Springs every year, so that was always really fun," Thial told First Coast News. "He always was kind of the life of the party out there, made everyone laugh and smile."
Thial says that even if you only knew Valle a little, you knew he loved to dance.
“He had a huge love for country music, then out of nowhere, he started taking line dancing pretty serious, he was really good at it and enjoyed it a lot," said Thial.
Valle’s friends and family shared stories about Valle’s infectious smile and ability to push people out of their comfort zone at the vigil.
“Kind of hard to deny that connection with him, so it makes me happy that everyone took it that way and did feel loved by him," said Thial.
After the candles were blown out and the vigil wrapped up, people went inside Southern Social to dance the night away in Valle's memory.