Days after an 18-year-old Riverside High School senior was gunned down while working at a Westside Burger King, his family and friends are still grappling with the sudden violence that took his life.

In a post on a GoFundMe page made to support Matthew Jackson’s family, his mother said he “had big dreams and a bright future ahead of him.”

She said he was set to join the U.S. Marines after graduation. His mother called his decision to enlist “a reflection of his courage, discipline, and his natural instinct to protect others.”

That instinct kicked in Saturday night when two men got into a fight inside the Burger King on Blanding Boulevard near Collins Road, where Jackson was working, according to information in a Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office report.

Jackson was fatally shot around 8:30

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