Telan Mann. (Photo from Daytona Beach Police Dept.)
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. | Just as Pride Month was nearing its end, a 19-year-old was fatally shot in Daytona Beach June 23.
The gunman, Jakari Webb, also 19, was arrested June 29 in connection with the shooting of Telan Mann, police said. Daytona Beach police announced that Webb has been charged with first-degree murder in Mann’s death.
According to police, Webb shot Mann to death because he thought Mann was going to out him as gay. The two had been talking on social media since February and it was on June 23 that they had planned to meet for the first time. Police said that it was during that meeting that Webb shot Mann to death.
Police arrived just before 2 a.m. at Forest Glen Boulevard and Oak Tree Circle where Mann was found dead on the sidewalk “in a pool of blood and with multiple bullet wounds on his body,” they said.
“There was some concern that Telan either had or was going to post something on social media kind of outing the suspect,” Daytona Beach Police Chief Jakari Young explained at a news conference last week.
Instagram messages detail the moments leading up to Mann’s death, according to a charging affidavit released June 30 by the clerk’s office.
The two teens’ conversation begins with Webb asking Mann when they can see each other and then discussing where to meet. Mann attempts to get Webb to meet him at the Sunoco gas station on the corner of Bellevue Avenue and Nova Road and when Mann says he’s arrived at the Sunoco, Webb tells him to “Come down.” The texts are as follows:
“Come down where?”
“Cross the street,” Webb wrote.
“Okay and then what?”
“Wait,” Webb responded.
Mann told Webb no and to “just come to the Sunoco.”
Webb fails to go to the gas station and Mann later suggests at 1:33 a.m. the two meet at Oak Tree Circle instead. Moments later, Mann told Webb to “hurry up,” asking him where he was to which Webb replied “passing Sunoco.”
Webb told Mann he was “outside” at 1:49 a.m. and Mann told him he was as well. Two minutes later, Webb asked Mann to “come to side walk.” to which Mann said “okay.” The last message Mann sent stated: “That’s you hiding.”
Mann’s final message was undeliverable due to Webb disabling his Instagram account, according to the affidavit.
Video surveillance showed Webb “walking from Nova Road and westbound onto Forest Glen Boulevard. The suspect is observed kneeling down behind a grass hill located at the corner of Oak Tree Circle and Forest Glen Boulevard to conceal himself from the victim,” according to a police report released Wednesday.
Neighbors at the apartment complex where Mann lived are in disbelief over what happened.
“It just breaks your heart to see things happen because that’s two lives gone. Not just one, so I don’t understand,” Eula Hicks, a neighbor, said to WESH 2 News.
Some of Mann’s friends, who did not want to be identified, considered him to be the peacemaker of their group and said he was a happy, caring person.
“He never wanted nothing bad for nobody. He always wanted everybody to be on good terms. He always was the positive one around the group. He never wanted any bad energy at all,” a friend of the victim said.
Webb faces three charges and is being held without bond at the Volusia County Jail. The charges include first-degree murder, resisting an officer and a probation violation. The addition of a hate crime charge being tacked on is under evaluation, Bryan Shorstein, executive director of the State Attorney’s Office for Florida’s 7th District said on Friday.
A memorial service for Mann will take place at Living Faith World Ministries in Daytona Beach July 9.
