Youth football coach, mentor killed in I-65 shooting

GREENWOOD, Ind. (WISH) — Richard Hamilton was the coach of the Indy Steelers, a youth soccer group, for over a decade.

The Johnson County coroner says the 43-year-old was shot and killed on I-65 on Wednesday night time.

Tarkington Park is the place Hamilton, referred to as “Coach Nell,” grew to become a pillar of the neighborhood.

Anthoney Hampton, a childhood good friend of Hamilton, advised I-Workforce 8, “Rain, sleet, snow, he’s going to be right here. The children and the dad and mom knew that Coach Nell was going to be in Tarkington. That’s what made him nice.”

Preliminary proof reveals the van Hamilton was using in was focused by somebody in a silver passenger automobile, Indiana State Police says. Police are asking for video from motorists within the space round 6:30 p.m. Wednesday so investigators can monitor down whoever did this.

“I’d hope that everybody begins to consider their habits with these weapons,” Hampton mentioned.

Damon Lee, Hamilton’s cousin, says did what he did for the neighborhood as a result of somebody did it for him when Coach Nell was a child. “For those who simply need an opportunity and any person to consider in you and any person that will help you to the place you should be, come discuss to Coach Nell. He was the center and soul of the neighborhood.”

Over the course of a decade and a half, Hamilton reached plenty of children. “I’d say over a 1,000, simple,” Lee mentioned.

The individual teaching by Hamilton’s facet throughout these years was Darryl Smith Sr., who first coached with Hamilton as a result of the pair wished to educate their very own children’ soccer group.

“Increasingly yearly we grew to become like a household. Increasingly we understood that, the significance of our position, the significance of understanding that we’ve bought to information these younger me and provides them the appropriate instruments to succeed,” Smith mentioned.

Loads of these obligations went effectively past the soccer subject, Smith mentioned.

“Checking in on them of their lecture rooms, going to high school, ensuring they’re doing what their speculated to do. If there was a nasty report with the trainer, dealing with that if we have to. We made positive we have been their father determine, their uncle determine, or their huge brother determine that they wanted. It was positively essential. Extra vital than the X’s and O’s.”

Smith advised I-Workforce 8 whoever shot Hamilton on the foggy stretch of I-65 at County Line Highway in Greenwood stole the soul of the neighborhood.

The Darius Shaq Leonard Maniac Basis on Thursday launched an announcement on Fb concerning Hamilton’s loss of life.