The man accused of shooting to death a beloved Texas youth football coach has turned himself into law enforcement.
Yaqub Talib, brother of retired NFL cornerback Aqib Talib, is accused of shooting Mike Hickmon, a youth football coach, after an argument on Saturday night between opposing coaching staff turned physical and then into a shooting. Multiple children were present at the time of the shooting, Lancaster police said in a press release.
Yaqub Talib’s attorney, Clark Birdsall, said his client “regrets the tragic loss of life but self surrendered this morning so that he may have the chance to say his side of the story”. Birdsall declined to elaborate on what Talib’s side of the story is.
Local news reported Yaqub Talib and Aqib Talib, a five-time Pro Bowler who announced his retirement in 2020, are coaches for North Dallas United Bobcats, a youth football team. Aqib Talib was named last month as a contributor for Prime Video’s Thursday Night Football.
Hickmon was a loving husband and father who was dedicated to serving the young athletes he worked with, local news reports say. “We have two lovely children who don’t have their father in their life now. We have a wife that is heartbroken and a family that is going through, and it’s very difficult, and we all need to be praying for them,” Keith Hall, pastor of the church of which Hickmon was a member, told NBC Dallas-Fort Worth.
His killing not only leaves a hole in the family it also has traumatized the children who bore witness to the gunfire. “Half of them couldn’t sleep. They’ve been crying, worried, don’t want to play football. I mean, what can you expect? [They’re] nine, they babies?” Heith Mayes, a friend and fellow coach who was present at the time of the shooting, told CBS Dallas-Fort Worth.
Hickmon’s killing is not an isolated incident. On 22 April this year, a man shot two other men in the stands of a football field near Temple University in Philadelphia, both men survived the shooting. The shooting happened as a children’s football team practiced below, CBS Philadelphia reported.
And on 31 July two adults and a six-year-old were shot non-fatally during a pee wee football game at an Oakland high school, ABC 7 news reported.
