JENNINGS — The 14-year-old boy killed during a fight near his junior high school was remembered Wednesday as a “star athlete†who loved football.
The boy, Justin Brooks, was also a leader on his city recreational league team, said two people who knew him through the league.
Justin was stabbed Tuesday afternoon during a fight just down the street from his school, Rose Mary Johnson Jennings Junior High School.
He died at a hospital, and no arrests had been made in his death as of Wednesday afternoon.
His father, also named Justin Brooks, posted a cellphone video to Facebook on Wednesday that appears to show the chaotic moments before and after the stabbing.
The 47-second video shows more than 20 people yelling in the middle of Hord Avenue, just around the corner from the junior high school. Some of the people look like adults.
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In the background, two people start fighting at the end of the driveway of a home. As the crowd runs toward the fight, a car honks while trying to make it through the crowd.
Then someone shouts out, “He just stabbed him!â€
In the Facebook post sharing the video, the boy’s father urges anyone with information about the stabbing to “speak up.†He did not answer a question about the origin of the video, and the boy’s mom declined to talk.
The video comes just days after a viral video showed a 15-year-old girl being severely beaten outside of nearby Hazelwood East High School.
The mother of another boy in Justin’s football league, Brandy Johnson, said her son had known the boy since they were about 6, when they both joined the City Rec Legends Football League. Johnson would sometimes pick up Justin and take him to games and practices when Justin’s mom couldn’t.
“He was a good kid and a star athlete,†she said in an interview. “Everybody knew that he was going to be a star because of the way he was. He was never disrespectful to the coaches or the other kids. He was always about the game. He was a kind of leader.â€
Donald Logan coached Justin for about two years in the city’s football league and echoed similar sentiments — including that he was respectful and a leader.
“I can tell you when I coached him he was one of my best players on my team,†Logan said. “I could put him anywhere on the field.â€
Logan last talked to Justin sometime last year, he said. They chatted about life, and Logan encouraged him to play multiple sports to “keep himself busy.â€
“I was shocked when they said it was him,†Logan said. “I was in shock. He wasn’t a violent kid from what I’ve seen.â€