Father gets 13 years for shooting youth football coach over son’s playing time

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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.

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.