Cincinnati youth football coach shot dead in front of players

CINCINNATI (WXIX) - A youth football team is mourning their beloved coach after he was shot and killed Tuesday night after practice.

Jermaine Knox, 37, died in front of his players outside the College Hill Recreation Facility on Larch Avenue.

Knox coached the youth football team that uses the park to practice and play games.

Another man was shot as well. Knox and the other victim were standing in the street after practice when a third man approached and started shooting, according to police.

The second victim was hit in the leg and is expected to recover.

Al Gray lives across the street from the park. He says he heard an argument late Tuesday night that prompted him to look out his window.

“I saw the car that was surrounded here pull out from the lot down there at the rec center and pull up here to the stop sign,” Gray said. “The guy got out of the car on his phone and stumbled over there and died.”

Community activist Mitchell Morris was also at the scene Tuesday night. He wonders how anyone can kill a man in front of kids.

“That made it double bad,” he said. “No one should have to live like that. Nobody should have to live life around this type of gun violence.”

Morris says a park should be a safe space for children and adults, not a scene where a man loses his life.

“We got babies that are being victims now, just the mental part of it,” he said. “When things like that happen, you think about the kids, so we just got to wrap our arms around them and the parents and people in the neighborhood and let them know this gone be all right.”

No suspect information or motive has been released.

The shooting remains under investigation.

Anyone with information is asked to contact CPD’s Homicide Unit: 513-352-3542.

See a spelling or grammar error in our story? Please include the title when you click here to report it.

Copyright 2022 WXIX. All rights reserved.