A South Florida youth football team is in mourning after losing one of their own to an apparent accidental shooting. NBC6’s Cherney Amhara reports.
A South Florida youth football team is in mourning after losing one of their own to an apparent accidental shooting.
George Harris Jr., 13, was shot and killed Saturday when a gun went off and hit him in the head in a Miami Gardens home.
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On Tuesday, the Liberty City Warriors football team took the field missing one of their own.
Instead of practicing, they paid tribute to number 14, their teammate and friend.
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“I feel real hurt, like, George meant a lot to me,” Keywann Bates said.
“At first I didn’t believe it was true, it was just so unexpected," Jaylen Jackson said.
“I feel like it hasn’t really hit me, yet I know once I get to the funeral, it’s going to really set in,” Emilio Thompson said.
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His teammates are grieving the 13-year-old’s absence — a reality that still seems like a nightmare they’re hoping to wake up from.
That nightmare began Saturday when Miami Gardens Police said they were called to a home on Northwest 207th Street.
Harris was inside one of the bedrooms playing video games with other teens. Police said some of the kids started playing with a gun that went off and hit Harris in the back of the head.
“I want people to know that George will forever be missed, George was never like a bad person, George had a good heart,” Bates said.
Liberty City Warriors Coach Shanton Crummie had a message for parents, players, and the entire neighborhood.
“We’re just asking the neighborhood, the kids in the neighborhood to put the guns down — stop playing with these guns, love on each other, we need the village back,” Crummie said.
Before leaving the field, Crummie recalled a memory for him that illustrated the kind of person Harris was and the void he now leaves behind.
“When I came through that gate, we’re supposed to touch the rock — that’s the Sam Johnson rock — and he always greeted me when I came through this gate to speak to me every day," Crummie said. "I don’t care how much I got on George or what I said to George, he always said, 'Yes coach,' 'No coach,' always looked me right in my eyes, so it saddened me for a guy like that, with that character, to leave earth this early."
On Wednesday, the team and Harris’ family plan to hold a vigil on Luther Campbell Football Field in honor of the teen.
Miami Gardens Police said an adult was inside the home at the time of the shooting. No one is in custody currently. Investigators are trying to figure out how the kids got a hold of a loaded gun.
