When 30-year-old Shaquille Latimore volunteered to coach youth football in his hometown of St. Louis, Missouri, he probably expected that he might get some blowback from the parents of his nine and ten-year-old players. When it comes to kids and competition, the emotions (naturally) run high. But what he probably didn’t see coming was being attacked – and shot – by one of those same parents.
Shaquille Latimore, in recovery since being wounded | SCREENSHOT: KSDK News/YouTube
Unfortunately, that’s exactly what happened to Latimore on Oct. 10, when 43-year-old Daryl Clemmons wounded the coach following multiple disputes over the way the former was coaching the team. More specifically, Clemmons was angry that his son wasn’t in the starting lineup, and he decided to take matters into his own hands. And he foolishly and recklessly did so right in front of the other parents and children.
“A bullet hit me under my left arm, on my left forearm, my leg, and one went through my lower back and out my liver. All of the bullets went through me,” Latimore told local NBC affiliate, KSDK. “I was hit four times and grazed once. I still have bullet fragments in my body, I can still feel it, but by the grace of God, man, I’m blessed, and I’m still here.”
“I am a miracle. I beat the odds.”
The coach said that Clemmons had been “critiquing” him all season and that he had made threats before. So, he wasn’t surprised when the perturbed parent approached him, but he wasn’t quite prepared for what happened next.
“I didn’t see his gun until it was already too late,” Latimore recalled. “I ran, and he shot me in the back. I fell, and he shot me a couple more times. After he shot me, he was like … I told you I was going to pop your [expletive].”
Shaquille Latimore told the news outlet that other parents rushed to his aid and essentially ‘shielded’ him from further attack. Police have charged Clemmons with first-degree assault and armed criminal action. He turned himself in a day after the incident occurred.
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