Lazaro Aleman
ECB Publishing, Inc.
More than 3 and a half years after the fatal shooting of a Monticello man, several of the victim’s relatives turned up at the Monticello City Council last week to express their anger and grief at the unsolved crime.
The family members of the late Antreval Green addressed the Monticello City Council on Tuesday evening, Sept. 7, asking why the crime remained unsolved after more than three years. They were tired of hearing from the police department that the murder was under investigation, they said.
“All we want is closure and for someone to be arrested,” said one of the speakers, adding that if the family couldn’t get satisfaction at the local level, they would take their request to a higher authority.
The council had no response, other than for Mayor Julie Conley, who explained that being a police matter, Chief Fred Mosley was the ultimate authority locally.
Mosley did not respond to the family members’ criticism of him and his department during their brief appearance before the council early in the meeting. He did, however, addressed the council on the issue at the meeting’s conclusion.
He understood the family members’ pain and frustration, Mosley said, noting that he himself had lost a son to crime. But it wasn’t true that he and his department hadn’t or weren’t doing their best to solve the crime, he said.
“We have been working on this case since 2018,” Mosley said. “But I can’t give them information because of the sensitivity of the case. We have to have probable cause to bring someone to justice.”
He noted that two murders had occurred in 2018 and both remained unresolved. He, however, wasn’t giving up, he said. He noted that beyond the resources of his department, he had gotten help in the investigation from other agencies, including the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office and Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
“We follow every lead,” Mosley said. “I’ve been working on this case since day one. I know that the family is frustrated and doesn’t want to hear that we’re working on it, but we are. We’re trying to do what we can to bring closure. And we’re not going to give up until someone is brought to justice. ”
Mosley and Captain Jack Pitts spoke with the Monticello News following the meeting. While the two couldn’t say if they had a suspect nor provide details, the two underscored that the investigation remained active and several leads were being pursued.
Pitts further noted that complications have plagued the investigation, including the loss of key personnel in both the police department and State Attorney’s Office.
“There have been three assistant state attorneys since then, and each has a different opinion of what they want,” Pitts said.
The department also, he said, had since gone through two investigators.
Green, 42, was shot near Second and Orange Streets in the southeast part of town on a Monday night in Jan. 2018.
According to the police reports, officers responded to a complaint of gunshots around 11 p.m. and found an injured man wandering the street bleeding. Following a trail of blood, officers discovered Green lying in a yard with what the report called life-threatening injuries.
Both men were transported to the hospital, where Green later died of his injuries. Police have since been looking for a suspect in the shooting.
Anyone with information is asked to call the Monticello Police Department (MPD) at (850) 342-0150 or Crime Stoppers at (850) 574-8477.