A 17-year-old former high school quarterback once seen as a rising football talent has been named as the teen killed in a shooting at a Bakersfield football game Friday night, while police say a juvenile suspect is now in custody.
Levi Brown was shot inside the stadium at Independence High School during the team’s season-opening matchup against Centennial High School, according to friends and relatives.
Authorities later arrested an unidentified 15-year-old on suspicion of murder and gang-related activity, police said.
Vince Carter, Brown’s former football coach, remembered him as an “exceptional athlete” and a dangerous dual-threat quarterback with “all the talent in the world.”
“There’s no doubt in my mind, he would have been a college football athlete,” Carter, who coached Brown at Garces Memorial High School in Bakersfield during his sophomore year, told The California Post.
Carter said Brown eventually stepped away from football, left school and began running into trouble.
“Levi had crazy potential and I always believed him,” the coach wrote in a widely shared social media post, adding, “it just sucks this is how it ended for my guy.”
Brown was also the father of a 1-year-old daughter, according to Carter.
Carter said Brown attended the game Friday with what he called “the wrong crowd” when the victim and his companions encountered the suspected shooter and got into a fight.
Police confirmed the Brown and the suspect knew each other and “this was not a random act of violence.”
The shooting happened just a few minutes into the game, with fans and players seen scrambling from the scene.
Bakersfield Police Sergeant Eric Celedon said the violence erupted just outside the inner chain-link fence where the game was being played. Police confirmed the shooting stemmed from a fight.
“Based on our preliminary investigation, we believe this began as an isolated incident that began as an altercation between a group of individuals, which ultimately resulted in the shooting,” he said.
Police later said
Police responded just after 8 p.m. and found Brown suffering from gunshot wounds. He was rushed to Kern Medical Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
“It’s tragic, and one is too many, especially somewhere where we come to have a good time, to bring our families, and a place where we celebrate, so we understand why somebody would be fearful to come out,” Celedon added.
A prayer service was held at nearby Bakersfield Christian High School after the shooting.
