Promising Teen Athlete Shot To Death In Oakland

OAKLAND, Calif. - A track and football star at Frick Middle School was shot and killed just days before he was to start high school.

Police said 13-year-old Jimon Clark was killed as he walked with a friend down Bancroft Avenue several blocks from the middle school. The friend was not hurt.

"To see something like this happen to a young man that was so energetic, so full of energy, is just heartbreaking," said the Frick track coach, Kermit Bayless.

Bayless said sports were what kept the champion sprinter engaged in school. Jimon competed in relay events alongside his twin brother, Jivon, and the two managed to beat a team of their teachers during a recent competition against faculty.

Jimon also wanted to try basketball when his freshman year at Skyline High School was to have started on Monday, Bayless said. Instead he died a week before the brothers' 14th birthday.

There have been no arrests in the homicide, reported at 61st and Bancroft avenues just before 9:30 p.m. on Wednesday, said Officer Jeff Thomason, a spokesman for the Oakland Police Department.

Thomason said police have not identified any suspects or determined a motive for the slaying.