Sharon High basketball player, 17, killed in shooting
Staff report
SHARON, Pa.
A 17-year-old Sharon High School basketball player was killed in a shooting early today.
Leangelo Ford died at the Sharon Regional Health System after being shot in the chest, according to a police press release.
Police say the shooting happened in the 100 block of Strawbridge Ave after midnight.
According to 21 WFMJ-TV, The Vindicator’s news partner, police have arrested a suspect, 19-year-old Jontae Maurice Barnes, in connection with the shooting. He is charged with one count of criminal homicide.
Ford was a sophomore guard for the Tigers basketball team.
Ford was also a member of the Pennsylvania Kings Basketball Club. The club says it stresses a true family environment where the players come first. PA Kings concentrates on proving quality instruction to our young people while competing in tournaments around the country, its website says.
Comments
I notice vindy is quick when someone does something wrong with a firearm but NEVER publishes a story where a gun was used properly and saved someone. so much for unbiased reporting but I would expect no less from them.
Seriously? This is all you can post after a student is murdered?
It's so sad to see a young man who is trying to make a difference get shot down by a thug who cares less about the lives of others. My sincere condolences to Leangelo Ford's family.
Jontae Maurice Barnes, 381 Liberty Street, Sharon, PA.
Go search for that address. It is a multi-unit rental property. There are bunches of arrested folks who live or have lived at that address. Crackheads, burglars, thieves, etc.
Needless to say, it is in an economically demolished area that has outspill from rejects tossed out of the housing projects.
Both deceased and the accused are well known to each other. They both played on Sharon's basketball team.
Ideally, the rest of the citizens of Sharon take note of this killing. It occurred not in the typically fine to be victimized Zone 5 where Barnes lived, but in a normally quiet and in denial zone right off the main business district.
Shows the need for more guns
More than half of this story describes basketball....WHO GIVES A CRAP!!!! God forbid he's a STUDENT!!! You're pathetic Spindicator!
Very sad: but one has to ask what was a 17 year old doing out that late at night? Why did his parents allow him out unsupervised at that hour?
This is a very sad situation that shouldn't happen. Prayers to the family...
In all fairness, midnight is not really that late for a junior or senior high school student. It was not a school night.
my prayers go out to his family and loved ones! so sad to see a life taken so young. sharon is turning into a little youngstown. somebody better put a big foot down now. that town is to small for murderers to be running around like they do in youngstown.
@hollywood, Sharon turning into a little Youngstown? That happened 10+ years ago.
Farrell is often referred to as little Youngstown. Farrell has torn down hundreds of structures in past decade and that has pushed a lot of the riff raff out of Farrell into Zone 5 of Sharon.
In most recent years, Zone 5 is where the homicides have occurred. Last year, I don't think there was one though. There was one along the main drag (Route 62 / State Street) -- which is not in Zone 5. This year, this killing is outside Zone 5.
Not far from this shooting on Strawbridge is Smith Ave, which intersects. Over past two years Laven Davis who lived on Smith seems to have been an intersect between quite a few crime including robbery, burglary, drugs, etc. The other commonality? Friends and likely family living in the housing projects in Zone 5 and roots in the destroyed section of Farrell. Oh yeah and Laven Davis was a former Sharon and Farrell basketball athlete.
Folks need to stop looking at these teen athletes as some saviors of their has been towns. We've seen countless teen athletes end up in heaps of major crime trouble in these towns.
Sharon residents need to take note that they've allowed way too much public housing in the town as well as halfway house with sex offenders who end up staying here. Put that together with no economy, no jobs and plenty of spare time doused in drugs and liquor and you have what happened in Zone 5 and what has spread all over Sharon. It's a giant multi-generation welfare entitlement vulture culture.