A sunny Sunday morning in Boynton Beach turned into heartbreak for a local family when 17-year-old Josiah Jones was fatally shot inside a home on Northwest Ninth Avenue while trying to calm an argument, according to police and independent reports.
Just before 9:15 a.m. on December 28, 2025, Boynton Beach police responded to a distress call from a residence in the 500 block of NW Ninth Avenue. Officers found Jones suffering from a single gunshot wound to his abdomen. Emergency crews rushed him to Delray Medical Center, but despite lifesaving efforts, the teenager died from his injuries.
Investigators say the suspect, 24-year-old Trenton Robinson, had come to the home to pick up his toddler son from the child’s mother. A verbal dispute erupted between Robinson and the woman, and voices grew loud enough that Jones stepped in, police said. His intention was simple — to separate the adults and stop the argument.
According to the probable cause affidavit obtained by Law & Crime Network, the tussle between Jones and Robinson escalated physically only to the point where both men ended up on a bed in the home. There were no reported punches thrown. It was at that moment, investigators say, Robinson pulled a firearm from his pocket and the weapon discharged, striking Jones.
Family members and other witnesses told detectives that Jones was not attacking Robinson and was simply doing what any caring brother would do — stepping in to calm a fight. One sister recounted that Robinson was saying, “get off me,” before the shot was fired. Another sister said she heard the gunshot but did not see the exact moment it happened.
Robinson was apprehended at the scene and taken into custody without incident. In his statements to law enforcement, he claimed the shooting was accidental and that he had been trying to remove the gun from his sweatshirt pocket so he wouldn’t shoot himself. Police say Robinson later told officers, “It was an accident,” and “he should have got off me.”
The Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office has charged Robinson with second-degree murder with a firearm. He is being held without bond at the Palm Beach County Jail and is scheduled to appear in court on February 26, 2026.
Despite the official charges, neighbors and family remember Josiah not for the moment he died, but for who he was — a young man trying to help. In a community still reeling from the loss, many have echoed the same plea: that arguments should never end in gunfire, and that a life so full of promise should never have been lost.
