‘You took a major part of my soul’: Jacksonville mom seeking answers after teen son’s October death

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Angela Thomas-Wesley had a special bond with her youngest son, 19-year-old Patrick Wesley Jr.

“‘I love you, Mama, I love you Mama,’” Thomas-Wesley recalled her son telling her, “and then he’s always, ‘Mama, don’t stress about nothing, don’t worry about it,’ he’d say, ‘we’ve got each other.’”

The teen would’ve attended Edward Waters College next semester, and had plans to serve his state and country in the National Guard.

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Wesley Jr.’s life was cut short on the night of Oct. 5, when JSO says officers responded to a double shooting on Brookwood Forest Boulevard in Arlington just after 10 p.m.

Thomas-Wesley says her son was sitting in a car with friends. According to police, an unknown suspect or suspects shot Wesley and his friend.

“This is my baby boy we’re talking about that I had just seen like an hour before, and I had to hold my dead child in my hands by the time I got outside,” she said. “You took a major part of my soul.”

Thomas-Wesley says her son’s friend survived, and detectives haven’t told her much, only saying they have evidence, but that they can’t yet take it to the State Attorney.

Thomas-Wesley is asking the others who were with her son to go to the police.

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“For some reason they don’t want to talk,” she said. “You’re supposed to be my son’s friends, and it was other people in the car too.”

We’ve asked JSO about the case, and how close they think they are to solving it. We’ll update this story when we get a response.

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