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Camden football standout Jameer Bullard, 18, shot to death on street

A Camden High School football star and Division I prospect known as a team leader, intensely driven on the field, and immensely likable in the locker room, was shot and killed in the street early Saturday morning, authorities said.

Jameer Bullard (Credit: Rivals.com)
Jameer Bullard (Credit: Rivals.com)Read more

A Camden High School football star and Division I prospect known as a team leader, intensely driven on the field, and immensely likable in the locker room, was shot and killed in the street early Saturday morning, authorities said.

Jameer Bullard, 18, was pronounced dead around 1 a.m., minutes after police found him with a gunshot wound lying on the sidewalk on the 1200 block of Mechanic Street. He was just one block from the new, larger home that he, his siblings, and his parents had left their old neighborhood for about a month ago.

Authorities were searching for a motive, had made no immediate arrests in his death, and were releasing no other information Saturday evening, said Andy McNeil, a spokesman for the Camden County Prosecutor's Office.

"There's a manhunt. They're shaking down the community to find out as much as possible," said Woodrow Wilson High School football coach Preston Brown, who coached Bullard for three years. He said police had assured him they were doing all they could to find Bullard's killer.

Police were summoned to the scene at 12:25 a.m. after a network of gunshot-detecting microphones - a Camden law enforcement hallmark called ShotSpotter - picked up the sound of gunfire, roughly calculated the location near Virtua Hospital's Camden branch, and transmitted that information to emergency responders.

Bullard was taken to Cooper University Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. His death marked Camden's eighth recorded homicide of the year. He is the city's youngest murder victim since April 2014, when 15-year-old Troy Anderson was shot and killed while walking home from school.

Bullard played football for three years at Woodrow Wilson before transferring to Camden High School a few weeks ago because his parents were eager to move into a larger house, according to a coach who knew him well.

"Jameer Bullard was a special kid," said Brown, 29, who said he had seen Bullard play beautifully even as a much younger child, as both of their families were from Camden's East Side. "Had a smile, was always cracking jokes, all the kids liked him.

"They took the life of a great young man with a bright future," said Brown, who said he cried for much of the day.

Brown, like many others, took to social media to lament Bullard's passing.

"Sleep easy Bullard . . . Can't believe Gonna bury another player . . . smh . . . Love all these kids," he posted on Twitter.

The victim was a linebacker and fullback weighing some 245 pounds and excelled in many roles on the field. He had drawn the attention of Division I scouts.

Bullard had been offered a scholarship to Temple University, the recruiting website www.rivals.com reported.

"You'd put him in a position and say, 'I need you to make this play.' And he would make that play," Brown said.

Bullard was, like so many other young athletes in Camden, possessed of a grit and determination to show the world that he was not going to be defined simply as a child of one of the nation's most violent cities.

"They have this undeniable will that's deeply embedded inside of the soul," Brown said. "They just keep pushing and driving."

Bullard was looking forward to a college scholarship for several reasons - not the least of which was that it would pay his way through higher education and, with luck, help him achieve a career in law enforcement.

"We always knew he was good, ever since he was a little guy," said Karon Robinson, who coached him for a year at Woodrow Wilson and had grown up near him.

Robinson, 26, said Bullard aspired to college as a way of helping himself and his family.

"He was a good kid. I know that," Robinson said. "He wanted a lot more for himself."

His friends saw that, too.

"Just One season with Bullard and I will remember him forever. He was gonna make it out," tweeted Yusef Hollingsworth.

What happened on that block to leave him dead and alone on a Friday night in spring?

Brown said he had heard the young man had been shot in the back, but could not imagine him doing anything to deserve it. Brown's own brother was killed on that block in July 2011, in a confrontation in which the motive, he said, remained unclear, even though two people pleaded guilty.

Robinson had a theory. One that appeared simple, innocuous, and devastating at the same time.

"Maybe he was at the wrong area at the wrong time, maybe stopped to talk to the wrong people at the wrong time," the coach said.

"I really don't know," he said. "I just know, that's how things happen.

Camden Homicides

The shooting death of Jameer Bullard early Saturday is the eighth recorded homicide in Camden this year.

Year-to-date

homicides:

2015: 8

2014: 15

2013: 15

2012: 15

2011: 14

2010: 10

SOURCE: Camden County Prosecutor's Office

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