A homicide investigation is underway Thursday in Columbia County after deputies say a shooting has left a child dead.
Fourteen-year-old Jadon Lane Vaughn was staying at a friend's house in the 200 block of Southeast Anastasia Street when he was shot at around 7 p.m., according to the Columbia County Sheriff's Office. Vaughn has since died.
An 11-year-old and a 9-year-old, both brothers, were the only other individuals involved in the fatal shooting, deputies say.
No one has been taken into custody and deputies say there is no clear motive.
While investigating, deputies said they found two handguns registered to the parents who owned the home.
Neighbors say the family had only lived in the neighborhood for a few weeks before the shooting.
One of Jadon's middle school teachers. Joy Thomas, says she can't believe he won't be there when school returns the following week.
"When I found out that it was him, that's when my heart was just crushed and I could feel that physical ache in my heart to miss him," Thomas said.
Jadon's mother, Brandi Sherrod, is shaken up. She says she doesn't have many details and that she's just trying to figure out what happened. She told us there is a Gofundme for Jadon.
Jadon's uncle, Wesley Harrington, was the one who set up the GoFundme in Jadon's honor to help pay for funeral costs. He tells First Coast News that Jadon was "just a kid trying to be a kid."
On the GoFundMe page he writes:
"Jadon was a very caring and loving little boy who was ready to take on the world headfirst. I remember him just telling me yesterday that he had got everything he wanted for Christmas and he was so happy. He loved me and his mother even our entire family to death being that he lost his father to suicide just a few years ago when he was a young boy. I do not expect a lot of donations but anything helps so we can give my sweet nephew a proper burial and tombstone."
This case is active and on-going.
Stay with First Coast News as this story develops.