{"id":22544,"date":"2013-07-15T18:06:55","date_gmt":"2013-07-15T22:06:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/?p=22544"},"modified":"2013-07-15T18:15:31","modified_gmt":"2013-07-15T22:15:31","slug":"candlelight-vigil-planned-for-murdered-family-dollar-manager","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/?p=22544","title":{"rendered":"Candle- light Vigil Planned For Murdered Family Dollar Manager"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>BY IRIS B. HOLTON<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Sentinel City Editor<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong> <\/strong>On Monday (today) at 7 p. m., family members and members of the community will hold a candlelight vigil at the Family Dollar Store, 4900 N. 40<sup>th<\/sup> Street. The vigil is being held to remember <strong>Mr.<\/strong> <strong>Horsley J. R. Shorter, Jr.,<\/strong> one of the store managers who was shot and killed Sunday during an armed robbery.<\/p>\n<p>According to a spokesperson for the Tampa Police Department, around 9 a.m., on Sunday, an armed suspect entered the Family Dollar Store, (corner of N. 40<sup>th<\/sup> Street and E. Ellicott) and approached a clerk, and demanded money. <strong>Mr.<\/strong> <strong>Horsley \u201cJ. R.\u201d Shorter, Jr., <\/strong>49,<strong> <\/strong>a manager, was in the office and observed the robbery in progress.<\/p>\n<p>Police said the gunman shot <strong>Shorter<\/strong> and forced the clerk into the parking lot at gunpoint. He attempted to place the clerk in the trunk of his own vehicle, but the clerk pleaded with him. The suspect eventually closed the trunk and drove off in the man\u2019s 1995 Mitsubishi Mirage. The car was later located Sunday night in the 2500 block of E. 38<sup>th<\/sup> Avenue.<\/p>\n<p>The suspect is described as being in his 20s with a thin build and dark complexion. He was last seen wearing a black Beanie, long sleeved thermal shirt, long shorts, and dark blue boxers.<\/p>\n<p>If anyone has any information pertaining to the suspect, he or she is asked to contact the Tampa Police Department at (813) 231-6130 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-873-TIPS (8477).<\/p>\n<p><strong>Manager Was Popular<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Known as <strong>\u201cJ.R.,\u201d Mr. Shorter <\/strong>was well known by patrons of the store. He had worked there for the past 4 years.<\/p>\n<p>A native of Reynolds, Georgia, he was the 7<sup>th<\/sup> of 8 children born to <strong>Mrs. Hattie Shorter,<\/strong> and the late <strong>Mr. Horsley Shorter, Sr.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong> <\/strong>His family moved to Tampa when he was 6 years old and he attended the public schools of Hillsborough County. He graduated from Tampa Bay Technical High School in 1981, and entered the U. S. Army.<\/p>\n<p>His sister, <strong>Mrs. Trinetta Shorter-Williams,<\/strong> said after entering the Army, her brother later transferred to the U. S. Air Force. After dedicating 26 years of his life to the military, <strong>Shorter <\/strong>retired and returned home for a period.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Mrs. Shorter-Williams<\/strong> said he later relocated to Maryland. However, when their father died in 2009, <strong>Shorter<\/strong> returned to Tampa to care for his mother, who was ill at the time.<\/p>\n<p>After returning to Tampa, he became employed with the Family Dollar Store.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m the youngest and we were close in age, so we were very close. He was really a good person. My brother was a person who really would do anything he could for you. He was my hero, and I\u2019m just speechless. I\u2019m just saddened by this.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She further stated that while he wasn\u2019t married and didn\u2019t have any children of his own, he treated his nieces like they were his kids. He loved hanging out with his friends, playing softball, football, and going to the gym.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Mrs. Shorter-Williams<\/strong> said her brother would often attend New Friendship Missionary Baptist Church. Funeral services for <strong>Mr. Shorter<\/strong> were incomplete at press time. Aikens Funeral Home is in charge of handling arrangements.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>BY IRIS B. HOLTON Sentinel City Editor On Monday (today) at 7 p. m., family members and members of the community will hold a candlelight vigil at the Family Dollar Store, 4900 N. 40th Street. The vigil is being held to remember Mr. Horsley J. R. Shorter, Jr., one of the store managers who was [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":210,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22544","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","pmpro-has-access"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22544","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/210"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22544"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22544\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22544"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22544"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22544"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}