Authorities Ask For Patience
TAMPA — The Jefferson High School football team was relaxing in the stands at Blake High School on Thursday night.
The team had just beaten Robinson High, 14-7, in a spring scrimmage. The players were settling in to watch Blake take on Plant High.
That all changed when some team members noticed a teen on the sidelines they thought was involved in the killing of teammate C.J. Mills last month, said Robert Morgan, assistant principal and school athletic director.
“They were saying things like, ‘That’s the guy over there,’” Morgan said. “‘He goes to Plant High.’ They felt he was involved.”
Before trouble could erupt, Morgan and his coaching staff, aware that police had interviewed the young man, ordered the team onto the bus to head back to Jefferson.
“We decided to bring the boys back before there could be an incident,” said Morgan. “It has been real difficult the last two or three weeks.”
With no arrest in the case, the Mills family is worried someone might try to take the law into their own hands. They are pleading for people to let the police do their job.
“I don’t want any of the children going after anyone,” said the boy’s grandmother, Lucy Mills. “I don’t want them getting into trouble. I don’t want anyone getting hurt. We have to leave it to the police.”
On April 25, Cedric “C.J.” Mills, a 17-year-old standout linebacker and well-loved junior, was gunned down in front of his house at 4219 W. Laurel St.
He died in the arms of his father, Vidal Mills, who once played with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers practice squad.
Witnesses and C.J. Mills’ friends began speculating that the shooting stemmed from a fight in which Mills supposedly punched another teen in the face in retaliation for stealing stereo equipment from his car.
The speculation and subsequent rumors have created tension among students, police and school officials say.
The decision for the team to leave Blake High on Thursday might is a result.
“There has been concern, especially the day after the murder and the next week, that the students were upset because they thought they knew who the perpetrators were and they weren’t being arrested,” Morgan said.
Community Searches For Closure
The Jefferson community is bothered that there is no closure, Morgan said.
“We can talk with them,” he said. “We can control them while they are here with us. But once they get into the neighborhood, on the weekends, it is difficult.”
The Mills case has been difficult for the police, too.
“We in law enforcement can’t base a case on rumors,” Maj. George McNamara said. “There have been rumors since the investigation began. We have to put facts together and get information. This has to proceed to the courthouse.”
McNamara said police are aware that students are upset that no one has been charged.
“We have been hearing the rumors that the community is mad that we haven’t charged the kid who was involved in the original fight,” McNamara said. “But there is nothing at this point that is close to charging him with a crime. This case is still being worked very, very aggressively.”
Rewards Offered For Information
The Mills family and supporters have raised $2,500 toward a reward, McNamara said. Crimestoppers is offering up to an additional $1,000 for anyone with information that leads to an arrest.
Jefferson High will be featured on MTV’s “Once Upon a Prom” at 2 p.m. today. MTV was on campus the week Mills was killed.
Morgan is urging students to allow the police to do their jobs.
Lucy Mills said she understands that’s not always an easy thing in the black community.
“I understand they are upset,” she said. “We as a race tend not to put trust in the police.”
For her grandson’s sake, they will have to, she said.
“I pray that the children won’t do anything that will put them behind bars,” she said. “I just want his killers apprehended. I want them to go to jail and pay for what happened to my baby.”
