A Florida teen died last week after gunfire erupted during a high school football game.
The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office said 19-year-old Joerod Jamel Adams died Friday during the season opening game between William M. Raines High School and Robert E. Lee High School on the city’s northside.
Adams’ friend, a 17-year-old male student at Raines, and an unrelated 16-year-old female student from Lee, also sustained non-life-threatening gunshot wounds, according to law enforcement.
Police said Adams and the male victim were attending the game together and both had known ties to street gangs. It’s unclear if the shooting was related to earlier disturbances reported during the game, but it appears the two teens were targeted. The female victim was struck by a stray bullet, according to police.
Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry released a statement over the weekend condemning gang violence and urged city leaders to join him in combating the problem. “I have stressed that we must redouble our commitment to showing young people that crime and violence is not the path,” he said.
“This is becoming our new normal, one that I am not willing to just openly accept, however, as a community, we all have to stand up and say this unacceptable,” said Duval County Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Diana Greene. “It is not acceptable that we as a community cannot come together to watch a football game without the evening descending into violence.”
The district will provide grief counselors for students and have already begun talks with “school principals, district leadership and community members to discuss safety and security protocols, procedures and solutions.”
“All protocols were followed with wanding every individual that came inside the stadium. All law enforcement personnel were within their designated locations protecting inside the stadium as well as on the outside perimeter and violence was still able to happen,” Greene said. “This is a community issue. It calls for everyone to stand up and not accept this type of behavior.”
