GAINESVILLE, Fla. (WCJB) – A new Gainesville police officer says the pain of a decades-old family tragedy helped shape his lifelong dream of serving and protecting the community.
Jordan Gonzalez, who was sworn in as a Gainesville Police Department officer Friday, is the nephew of one of the five victims murdered during the 1990 Gainesville student murders. His uncle’s brother, Manuel Taboada, was among the University of Florida students killed.
“I remembered I was about like eight years old and I was watching Forensic Files with my dad and an episode came on and it was about the student murders that happened here in 1990,” Gonzalez said. “My uncle’s brother is Manuel Taboada, one of the victims of the five students, and just seeing how GPD still followed through and cared about my family — sending letters, sending flowers and whatnot, it meant a lot.”…