Justin Jennings

Justin Elijah Thomas Jennings was a Roanoke man known to those closest to him for a warm sense of humor and the easy companionship he offered to friends and family. By the time he was 31, Justin’s life was rooted in his community; the people who knew him remember him in simple, human terms — as someone who brightened ordinary moments and who mattered deeply to those nearest him.

Public records and contemporary news reporting verify that Justin was shot on the night of July 17, 2019, in Roanoke. He was treated at a local hospital and later died of his injuries. The circumstances of his death left family and friends grieving and asking questions that remain difficult to answer. In the years since, his loss has been referenced by loved ones and local reporting as part of a wider conversation in Roanoke about violence and the need for safety.

Although the public record about Justin’s life beyond his death is limited in widely published sources, the human details that are available make clear that he was more than a headline: he was a son, a friend, and a presence in his neighborhood whose absence has been felt. Family members and community members have continued to remember him on anniversaries and in calls for answers, and his name appears on memorials that record the lives taken by gun violence.

This remembrance honors Justin’s personhood rather than the circumstances of his death. Where the public record is sparse, respect and restraint guide what is shared: nothing invented here, only the acknowledgment that a real life was lived and lost. Those who loved Justin carry his memory forward in private remembrances, gatherings, and quiet moments, cherishing the laughter and companionship he brought into their lives.

If you have personal memories, photographs, or private remembrances you wish to preserve on a memorial page, those recollections will help give a fuller picture of the man Justin was to family and friends. For anyone with information related to the deaths of Justin Jennings and Kyyona Casey, local law enforcement has urged the public to come forward so the families might one day receive answers.