Family remembers man killed 6 years after drive-by shooting, case remains unsolved
Family and friends gathered Monday to remember a Richfield man who was fatally shot during a drive-by shooting six years ago.
Jonathan O’Shaughnessy was shot and killed on July 3, 2017, while he was walking home with family members in Richfield.
“I tried to jump in front of Jonathan,” his mother, Cynthia Kuntz, remembered in an interview on Monday. “He jumped in front of me and took the three bullets and down he went.”
O’Shaughnessy would’ve been 30 years old this year. Instead, the shooting left him forever 24.
Witnesses at the time of the shooting told police a minivan pulled up to the curb at Fourth Avenue South and 64th Street.
“I’m here all the time,” Kuntz said, standing next to a memorial bench in the spot where her son was killed in 2017.
“Five blocks from home, and you know, this happened,” she added.
Every year, for six years, O’Shaughnessy’s parents gather the community at the very spot in remembrance.
“He was a family guy,” his dad, Brian O’Shaughnessy, said. “Twenty-four years old at the time and going to the Fourth of July celebration with his mother and his aunts.”
He and Kuntz reminded the public that there’s a $50,000 reward for anyone willing to come forward with information.
“Somebody knows who did this. Somebody knows,” Kuntz said.
Kuntz, a witness herself, said she didn’t know the shooter, and in the moment, she was singularly focused on trying to revive her son.
“And I’m thinking, ‘OK, am I doing CPR right?’ ‘Am I doing this wrong?’ ‘Why isn’t he breathing?'” she remembered.
“Your mind is just, you know, doesn’t understand that.”
Richfield Police, last March announced a person of interest “directly involved in the murder.”
Police on Monday told 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS the case is active but there’s no update and still no arrests.
“People don’t talk. They’re afraid to talk,” Kuntz said. “So it’s like, that’s why we keep wanting the public to come forward.”
Loved ones did find a bright spot Monday with the results of the family’s fundraiser for local animal rescue Pet Haven.
“We had a goal that has been surpassed unbelievably,” Pet Haven Executive Director Kerry D’Amato said. “We have close to 2,000 pairs of shoes.”
The fundraiser was done in conjunction with Funds2Orgs, an organization that sends donated shoes to people in need overseas. Funds2Orgs then pays the donator, in this case Pet Haven, $1 per pair, meaning roughly $2,000 will go to the rescue in O’Shaughnessy’s name.
Giving back in his name is what keeps Kuntz going.
“Wonderful, wonderful memories, but I just, like I said, I wonder where he would be right now,” she said.
Anyone with information about the shooting is asked to call the Richfield Police Department at 612-861-9833.