Cedric C.J. Mills was a popular football player at Jefferson High School in Tampa.
His father played football briefly for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and then the Tampa Bay Storm.
C.J.’s High School coach at Jefferson thought his future would be bright.
“My opinion, he’d be playing in the NFL right now as we speak. There is no question,” said Mike Fenton, who also spoke highly of Mills character in school, “He was not only a leader on the football team, but he was a leader in our school.”
As a young child growing up, C.J.’s grandmother helped raise him.
“There wasn’t a thing that I could ask him to do for me that he wouldn’t do it,” said Lucy Mills, she was also there for him, going to every football game and taking him to every practice.
“He had the biggest heart, you couldn’t help but love him,” said his grandmother.
That potential ended and his big heart stopped beating on April 25, 2007.
Two masked men jumped out of a four-door silver Chrysler Sebring with tinted windows and opened fire.
C.J. was hit, but didn’t die immediately.
His stepmother had just left the home to go shopping, she rushed back when she heard about the shooting and held C.J. in her arms before he was loaded into an ambulance.
“And he just looked at me and he was like, ‘I love you Ma,'” said Flo Mills.
Several people witnessed the shooting, but the descriptions they gave to police were very vague and 11 years later, the case remains unsolved.
“I want justice done. I want to be here, I want my eyes open, when this person, these people, whomever killed him are caught,” said Flo Mills.
Tampa Police Detective Neal Smith is now in charge of the cold case and says there were more than two men in the Chrysler Sebring when Mills was shot.
“There was a driver in the car that probably didn’t get out,” said Smith who hopes that person, or someone else will come forward to clear their conscious.
“It could be weighing on someone’s mind, maybe someone that was a part of this that didn’t realize that something like this was going to go down, could be weighing on their mind and that’s just one step away from giving us that information that will put us where we need to be,” said Smith.
C.J.’s grandmother is well aware that some people in the community may know who murdered him, and don’t want to come forward because they don’t want to be seen as a “snitch” but she believes they should consider more than their reputation.
“Think about if it happened to you and think about if it happen to you. You would want your parents and your family to know what happen and you would want these people to at least pay for what they done,” said Lucy Mills.
She has faith the people responsible will face justice.
“I have gotten to the point now that I know even if we don’t get them on this side, they will pay on the other side,” said Mills.
