Father gets 13 years for shooting youth football coach over son’s
playing time
[March 14, 2025]
ST. LOUIS (AP) — A
father in Missouri was sentenced to 13 years in prison on Thursday for
shooting and wounding a St. Louis youth football coach over his son’s
playing time while 9- and 10-year-olds practiced nearby.
A jury found Daryl Clemmons, 45, guilty last month of assault and armed
criminal action in the October 2023 shooting of Shaquille Latimore, a
volunteer coach for the City Rec Legends Football League. He was
hospitalized in critical condition but survived. |
Shaquille Latimore, second from right, sits with two players on the
youth football league he assistant coaches at a park in south St. Louis
on Thursday, Oct. 19, 2023. (Allie Schallert/St. Louis Post-Dispatch via
AP) |
|
Both men were armed. According to prosecutors, the coach handed
his gun to a friend and told Clemmons they should fight with
fists. Clemmons rejected that idea and shot Latimore five times.
The father fled but turned himself in to police later that
evening.
The team was then suspended over what St. Louis officials
described as “a series of incidents perpetuated by adults” that
culminated in the shooting near a practice field in Sherman
Park. Latimore said at the time that he was upset about the
decision, calling it “not fair” that the team should suffer.
The defense argued that the shooting was in self defense and
filed a motion for a new trial.
St. Louis Circuit Attorney’s Office said the two men were at
odds over the amount of playing time Clemmons’s son had been
getting.
“Violence, especially in youth sports, is completely
unacceptable and undermines the purpose of these programs —
teaching teamwork, discipline, and respect,” said Circuit
Attorney Gabe Gore in a news release after the jury returned the
guilty verdict.
After the shooting, the Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis
partnered with the city to offer counseling to the players and
others who witnessed the shooting.
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