2 Mount Vernon High School football players hurt in shooting
MOUNT VERNON, Westchester County (WABC) -- Two Mount Vernon High School players walking home from a party were injured in a shooting early Sunday.
The gunshots rang out around 1 a.m. on West First Street near South 14th Avenue, with one teen shot in the leg. The other was not hit by gunfire but broke his leg while running away.
The were identified as 18-year-old Tommy Guest, a senior with a full academic scholarship to Stony Brook University, and his cousin, 16-year-old Jarid Collins.
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Mayor Shawyn Patterson Howard said Guest was a defensive starter on the team and an honor student who plays three instruments and draws.
"Far too often when we hear of young Black men who were involved and who were victims of violent crime in urban communities, we automatically make assumptions that they were involved in some type of negative activity, that they were standing on the corner, that they were doing negative things," Patterson Howard said. "This is not the case. So I wanted to make sure that I let people know who these young men are."
Collins, who suffered the broken leg when he fell into a gap between a parked truck and a concrete wall, is a rising junior who is also an honor student and a starter on the team.
Both were taken to Jacobi Medical Center in the Bronx in stable condition.
Dad Jae Collins spoke Monday from the place his son almost lost his life
"He has a rod that's going to be put in his leg, and hopefully, he has a great recovery," he said. "He is still young. The doctor says he's young, so hopefully everything is going to be OK."
Mount Vernon police said an occupied car was also struck several times, but no injuries were reported.
"These are young men who were doing everything that they were supposed to do," Patterson Howard said. "They were doing everything right, involved in football, honor roll students, full academic college scholarships, involved in music and arts, leaders, and here they are walking home, walking home from an event, minding their own busisness...and someone pulls up on them, asks questions, and starts shooting."
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No arrests have been made at this time, and the investigation is ongoing.
Investigators are examining video from security cameras near the shooting scene, but they have few leads to work with.
They want help from the public as to who opened fire and why, and information people can share anonymously through the department's confidential tip line.
"We really can do our jobs as police and as law enforcement officials, but the community comes and gives us that other piece that we don't really have," said Jennifer Lackard, with the Mount Vernon Police Department. "And we really need them to be comfortable coming forward."
Anyone with information about the incident is urged to call the Detective Division at 914-665-2510.
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