A 14-year-old rising football star, Jaylon McKenzie, died after he was shot at a party in southern Illinois on May 4. The boy had been recently featured in Sports Illustrated as one of six teens “who will rule the future in sports” and had hoped to “make the NFL.”
McKenzie’s mother told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that witnesses said that her son was killed by a stray bullet after a fight broke out at a house party. Illinois State Police said that the shooting happened around 11:40 p.m. in Venice, Illinois, near the Missouri border.
