Nationwide — Shantel Patrice Ennis, a 29-year-old African American mother of seven children from Jacksonville, Florida, was sadly killed in a car crash near the Acosta Bridge this past weekend. Her fiancé and their one-year-old child were seriously injured but survived.The Florida Highway Patrol said Ennis’s fiancé, Michael Fulmore, was driving when their vehicle hit a barrier on Riverside Avenue just before noon. Paramedics rushed Fulmore and the baby to the hospital. Ennis was pronounced dead at the scene.
Fulmore said he was knocked unconscious in the crash and woke up to find Ennis unresponsive. “I’m tapping her, trying to wake her up,” he told 11 Alive. “I dread the fact that the kids are not going to have their mom, and I lost my fiancé. I’ve cried every tear I can cry.”
Ennis’s death has left her family devastated. Her father, Pastor Jerome Sales, and his wife raised her after her biological father died. “From day one, she gave me the affectionate term of dad,” he said. He fondly recalled teaching her to drive and being present for major life milestones, including the birth of her first child.
Sales, who had just led a church service earlier that day, recalled getting the devastating news hours later. “To wake up with a praise in your heart and go to church thinking everything’s going to be fine, and then to get out of church and everything is turned upside down, it’s just phenomenal,” he said.
The family is now leaning on their faith to get through this difficult time. Pastor Sales had preached about the “hidden power in your storm” that very morning, a message he says now feels more real than ever.
Ennis’s parents are focused on keeping her seven children together and honoring her memory by preserving the family she built. The community has already offered support with donations. A GoFundMe page has been set up to help the family, and it has so far raised over $4,000.