Family of slain 73-year-old grandmother Mattie Lou Jones prays for justice at East Stuart community vigil
Family and friends gathered and shared memories of Mattie Lou Jones. Members of the Stuart Police Department were in attendance and say they, too, will miss her smiling face.
The East Stuart community honored the legacy of former nursing home cook and pillar of positivity, who was shot and killed last week. Her granddaughter remembers that "she was always welcoming, she had a big heart and no one could wipe that smile off her face."
Her daughter said she loved her kids, her grandchildren, her great-grandchildren, as she had a host of them.
Jones had 22 great-grandchildren, 16 grandchildren and eight children of her own. On Thanksgiving night, one of her kids delivered her dinner. All are now desperate to know who shot their matriarch on Thanksgiving night. Her daughter recalled the worst phone call.
"My brother said he seen the bullet come through the glass window and it grazed his face and hit my mom in the left cheek," she said.
That bullet left a hole in the home on the corner of Spruce and Southeast 10th streets fatally wounding Jones, 73.
"It ain't safe. There's always shooting in this corner always," Scales said.
Stuart police Lt. Michael Gerwan said, "This investigation is active it is fluid I can't give any specific updates other than it's all hands on deck. its the number one priority for us."
Meantime a message to the community from the Jones family, "If you do the crime you should do the time and just turn yourself in period."
If you have any information you're asked to call Stuart police.