It was about midway via Thursday night time’s soccer follow, and the coach was educating his younger gamers the right way to kick off and obtain the ball.
Washington, D.C
Man fatally shot at son’s football practice, D.C. police say
Seconds later, gunfire erupted on the sideline. Dozens of gamers, starting from 5 to 12 years previous, sprinted towards the road or to their dad and mom watching close by.
One man, 36-year-old D Angelo Taylor, fell to the bottom. He died of a gunshot wound round 7:20 p.m. that night time, steps away from the place Cannaday stated the person’s son had been training.
The circumstances round Taylor’s demise remained unclear early Friday afternoon. D.C. police had not made an arrest within the incident, and the division spokesperson stated authorities discovered a ghost gun on Taylor after he had been shot. Cannaday stated he had by no means seen Taylor at follow earlier than that night time. His son, the coach stated, joined this system final yr.
Taylor’s brother, Benjamin Taylor, stated the household grew up in Bladensburg, Md., and that D Angelo Taylor was the youngest of three siblings.
“He was only a good brother,” Benjamin Taylor, a 40-year-old who lives in Greensboro, N.C., stated. He added that his brother had talked about beginning his personal lawn-care service.
“I hope full justice is served to somebody who thought it was alright to Homicide a person in our neighborhood particularly in entrance of our youngsters,” D.C. Council member Trayon White Sr. (D-Ward 8) wrote in a press release. “Individuals are shedding their rattling minds out right here.”
The Triumphant Leaders Youth Mentoring Program, which teaches life expertise via sports activities, has for years held soccer follow on an open discipline on the nook of fifteenth Avenue and Mississippi Avenue SE, subsequent to Malcolm X Elementary College. Cannaday stated Thursday night time was one among many occasions that violence has interrupted follow.
The capturing comes a few yr after police stated a participant at a flag soccer recreation on Capitol Hill fatally shot an opponent who caught the profitable landing cross. The defendant is awaiting trial.
The town remains to be struggling to curtail shootings and homicides, which as of Friday morning have been up 2 % from the identical time in 2021, when the town surpassed 200 killings for the primary time in almost 20 years. Lower than 12 hours after Taylor was killed, one other man, 43-year-old Jermaine Brown, was fatally shot open air about 2½ miles away, within the 1600 block of 18th Avenue SE.
Cannaday stated he has been “begging and pleading” for police to “control us” throughout follow occasions. Police didn’t reply to a request to touch upon this situation.
After the younger gamers scattered, Cannaday stated some returned to the sector in a daze. Standing in the midst of police tape, the coach observed how few of his gamers have been crying or in hysterics.
“It’s regular for them now,” he stated. “It was extra like, ‘Rattling, once more.’ That was the expression.”
Razzan Nakhlawi contributed to this report.