FL FL - Tiphne Hollis, 16, Jacksonville, 20 March 2010

Carr lives on Calvin Street and was outside by his front porch when he heard the gunfire. He ducked inside. In what seemed like a few seconds, the car Tiphne was traveling in came crashing into his front yard, slamming into the truck parked out front. Her sister ran into Carr's house, screaming for help.

It was an apparent case of mistaken identity as Hollis and loved ones drove down the street that night. So far, no arrests have been made.

Tiphne's family and relatives who were in the car say she and several other girls had been shopping all day and were looking for a friend's house in the area when the shooting started. The family theorized that the car, an old police cruiser, may have been mistaken for someone else's, leading to the gunfire.

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The group MAD DADS hopes 2015 will be the year the code of silence is broken, and dozens of unsolved murders in Jacksonville will be solved... That's why the group joined family members of those murder victims and knocked on doors in one Northwest Jacksonville neighborhood...

Shanda Whitaker-Ward has been waiting nearly five years for the person who shot and killed her 16-year-old daughter, Tiphne Hollis, to be brought to justice. She admits it's been hard, but says events like these make it easier. "While we're out here seeking justice we're doing something positive in the community. We're out here giving back in memory of Tiphne," said Whitaker-Ward.

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"I remember everything. Sometimes it seems like yesterday," Shanda Whitaker Ward, Tiphne's mom, told Dateline. "I just remember getting the phone call, and going to the neighborhood where it happened. She was only 16."

That night, Tiphne was rushed to the hospital, but it was too late. To this day, Shanda says Tiphne's death remains a mystery. Her nieces believe the shot might have been an accident.

Accident or not, though, Shanda says nothing can bring back her beloved daughter. "It was random," Shanda told Dateline. "It was nobody that Tiphne knew."

Despite the pain of losing her daughter, Shanda has spent the past six years spearheading a campaign to raise awareness about Tiphne's death.

"Every 20th of each month, I do a walk in that community where Tiphne was killed," said Shanda. "We do the walk in that neighborhood, just to let them know that we are not going to stop fighting for justice for Tiphne."

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Family members of Tiphne Hollis, killed 7-years ago in a drive-by shooting, held a fashion show in her honor Saturday afternoon at the downtown Jacksonville library.

The event featured several local leaders, community members, and even a radio host from New York.


Hollis' mother has held events every year in memory of her daughter.

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A Jacksonville mother is asking the community to help find her daughter's killer seven years after she was shot and killed in a drive-by on the city's Westside.

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Mayor Lenny Curry's office declared this week Tiphne D. Hollis Week, and her family held a walk in her memory late Monday afternoon in the neighborhood where she was gunned down.

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Dan Janson, Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office Homicide Sergeant, said he believes this murder has witnesses; Whitaker-Ward said during her crime walks, she has heard the same.

“I always hear that, how the guys are sorry for what they did, but they are not going to turn themselves in,” Whitaker-Ward said.


Seven years have passed since Tiphne’s murder and from this tragedy, was sadly born another for Tiphne’s family. Her father took his own life following her death. Whitaker-Ward said that her family sought counselors, but dealing with the grief is difficult.

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