Breon Allen Jr., 7, shot to death in late January outside a Commonwealth Avenue home. | JSO
Published on March 12, 2025 at 1:15 pm
Free local news and info, in your inbox at 6 a.m. M-F. Sign up for the Jacksonville Today newsletter.
Four men have been arrested in connection with the Jan. 24 murder of 7-year-old Breon Allen Jr. outside of a Westside home, Sheriff T.K. Waters says.
And more arrests in the case are expected as the Sheriff’s Office investigation continues into the boy’s murder, the sheriff says.
Jacksonville Today thanks our sponsors. Become one.
Under arrest are Keith Fields, 18; 20-year-old Dannel Larkins, Keith Johnson, 21; and 24-year-old Zharod Sykes, police say. All have been charged with second degree murder, conspiracy to commit murder and attempted second degree murder, jail records show.
Fields, Larkins, and Sykes are all documented gang members and Johnson is a documented gang associate, Waters said during a Wednesday news conference.
Breon Allen was shot at about 5 p.m. as he and 21-year-old Lafayette Mango left a home on Commonwealth Avenue. People jumped out of a car and began shooting, even as they saw the little boy, Waters says.
Jacksonville Today thanks our sponsors. Become one.
“This murder was a culmination of escalating violence between two rival street gangs, or street groups,” he said. “It was a targeted, planned act, one with which one of the murderers clearly saw Breon walking innocently with the intended target, Lafayette Mango.”
Mango survived that shooting.
The four suspects were arrested between Jan. 28 and March 7 and are being held without bail, jail logs show. The sheriff would not say which suspects are accused of firing guns, citing an ongoing investigation.
