Someone ambushed Jared Bridegan the night of Feb. 16, 2022 after he dropped off his twin children at their mother’s home, police have said. His two-year-old daughter was in the SUV. (Image: Jacksonville Beach Police Department)
Police on Wednesday announced an arrest in Microsoft executive Jared Bridegan‘s death from an apparent ambush. Henry Tenon, 61, faces a count each of murder in the second degree with a weapon, conspiracy to commit murder in the first degree, accessory after the fact in a capital felony, and child abuse.
Speaking in a press conference, Jacksonville police Chief Gene Paul Smith and State Attorney Melissa Nelson did not explain the evidence they claim leads them to the defendant. The prosecutor said the arrest warrant and affidavit were sealed.
Officers in Jacksonville Beach, Florida, arrived at the scene on the 3700 block of Sanctuary Way South the night of Feb. 16, 2022 and saw a tire on the road in front of Bridegan’s stationary SUV. His two-year-old daughter was in the vehicle.
Police have suggested that as Bridegan was stepping out to take care of the tire, his killer attacked, repeatedly opening fire. His daughter was physically unharmed, but his mysterious death left a void in the lives of his loved ones.
“This was such a heinous crime,” Bridegan’s older brother, Adam Bridegan, told WJXT in an August report. “I mean, the amount of times he was shot, just to ensure that he was dead, that he wasn’t going to be able to recover, and all of us in our family are just devastated.”
“Sometimes I feel like we are just a spectacle,” Jared’s wife Kirsten Bridegan said. “People don’t realize that this is our reality every single day. We wake up every day and Jared is still not here. His car is not pulling in the driveway. This is real. Myself, four children and an enormous amount of friends and family are all suffering every single day because of this. This is real.”
“She knows Daddy was on the ground. Daddy got hurt. She asks questions about why.”
Jared Bridegan’s 2-year-old daughter watched as he was savagely murdered in Florida.
Now his widow is demanding justice for the father of four. pic.twitter.com/SwO4hFvp3F— Brian Entin (@BrianEntin) April 15, 2022
TONIGHT AT 5 AND 6: Kirsten Bridegan is not giving up the search for her husband’s killer. Five weeks ago, Jared Bridegan was shot and killed along a Jacksonville Beach road in front of their two-year-old daughter. She is leaning on the community for answers. @ActionNewsJax pic.twitter.com/tR6AuyTv9C
— Gretchen Kernbach (@GretchenK_TV) March 23, 2022
Bridegan had just left his two older children, fraternal twins, at the home of his ex-wife Shanna Gardner-Fernandez.
“It is becoming necessary to respond,” she said, denying wrongdoing to The Florida Times-Union in a June 30 report. “I didn’t want it to make a spectacle. I want people to know where I am coming from.”
She declined to discuss their divorce, in which she had accused him of “disturbing and abusive behavior.” He claimed she locked him out of the master bedroom and installed surveillance devices in both his car and the children’s bedroom.
“I don’t see any good in airing our dirty laundry,” she reportedly said.
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Bridegan was a software manager for Microsoft. A North Carolina native, his family moved to Jacksonville Beach, where he attended the Douglas Anderson School of the Arts for high school.
“He was a man of faith,” Adam said. “That’s what he would want people to feel about him; how much he loved his faith, how much he loved his family.”
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