A freshman football player from Auburn University was fatally shot at an off-campus party early Sunday morning.
Jakell Mitchell, 18, was in an argument with a man at an apartment complex near the school which escalated quickly once a third man pulled out a gun.
"He just started shooting. Jakell fell on the ground and he tried to get back up and run, and then he fell again. He started shooting at Jakell again while Jakell was on the ground," Ayanna Hughuley, Mitchell's girlfriend, told The Associated Press.
The gunman, identified as 22-year-old Markale Deanda Hart, was arrested on murder charges Sunday morning.
Hughuley told the AP she didn't think Hart and Mitchell knew each other prior to the fatal incident, adding that she didn't know what the men were fighting about.
"He had his gun... and was looking at Jakell," Hughuley recalled of the suspect while speaking with AP. "He just started shooting."
Mitchell's dad still cannot wrap his head around the death of his son.
"That's not a place I wouldn't have told him that he could go," Mario Mitchell, the victim's father who lives in Opelika, Ala., said to Montgomery Advertiser. "He goes to school there. I mean (a party?) That's the college life. The guys there weren't in college. There's nothing I would've told him to do different. What I told him to do was not hang out (in Opelika); he was at Auburn. I told him to stay out of Opelika. So he was doing exactly what I told him to do."
Mitchell was redshirted this season for the Auburn Tigers, meaning he practices with the team but doesn't play in games. He was expected to start next year, when he would have been a sophomore, as either a tight end or a back.
Mitchell's father told AP his son chose to attend Auburn University after meeting the university's football coach, Guz Malzahn.
"It was like love at first sight for them two," he said.
Before meeting Malzahn, Mitchell wanted to go to school out of state to get out of his hometown, Opelika. Auburn University is about 20 minutes away from Opelika High School.
"I'm devastated and saddened by the passing of Jakell Mitchell," Auburn coach Gus Malzahn said in a statement. "My thoughts and prayers are with Jakell's family and friends, who are suffering through this senseless tragedy. I know the Auburn Family is hurting, especially our players and coaches, and we are going to love and support them through this difficult time. We have lost a member of our family too young, too soon."
