Mar 3, 2008 7:05 pm US/Pacific
High School Football Hero Cut Down By Gun Violence
LOS ANGELES
A 17-year-old football star was shot and killed walking home Sunday night, according to authorities.
Monday, friends and family recalled Jamiel Shaw and angrily lashed out at the gang violence that took his life. Police say that Shaw was not affiliated with a gang and was apparently in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Shaw was shot and killed about 8:30 p.m. Sunday in the 2100 block of Fifth Avenue, said Craig Harvey of the coroner's office.
The teen was a senior who got good grades and had been named the
football team's "Most Valuable Player."
The boy's father told KCAL reporter Kristine Lazar that his son was being courted by various colleges.
Shaw's mother, is a sergeant in the Army serving her second tour of duty in Iraq.
"They killed him while his mother is in Iraq fighting, dodging bullets and she gets a phone call to say her son is on the streets of L.A. dead. For what?" the teen's father, Jamiel Shaw Sr., told reporters.
"He did everything we asked him to do. It's not right, `cause we don't know what to do now, you know?"
Shaw was killed less than three blocks from his home when at least two Latino men, believed to be gang members, walked up and asked him if he was in a gang. "This is brutal. It's a brutal, senseless act of violence," Los
Angeles police Detective Frank Carrillo told reporters.
"The victim was not a gang member. Unfortunately, it's not uncommon in L.A. that we have some gang members approaching victims at random just to see if they are or not. But to shoot them anyway, that's just disgusting."
(© 2008 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
