CHARLOTTE \u2014 Friends, teammates, and family gathered Wednesday night in University City to honor a teenage soccer player killed in a shooting last week. <\/p>\n
The vigil was held on the same field where the victim spent countless hours playing the sport he loved and building friendships that his coach said became like family.<\/p>\n
According to the Concord Police Department, two teammates were shot in a parking lot last Thursday during what investigators believe was a meetup to sell an item arranged through social media. <\/p>\n
One of the teens died, and the other is now recovering at home. Police have charged 17\u2011year\u2011old Yanixan Silva with murder and said he is being charged as an adult.<\/p>\n
Soccer coach Samuel Aguilera said the past week has been heartbreaking for the team.<\/p>\n
\u201cCrying, heartbroken, not knowing what to say or how to react to the moment right now because it is so fresh and just thinking, \u2018I won\u2019t see my teammate again,\u2019\u201d Aguilera said.<\/p>\n
Police said a fight broke out during the meetup, and Silva opened fire. A memorial of candles was placed at midfield during the vigil, surrounded by teammates and friends who asked that the victim\u2019s name and photo not be shared publicly.<\/p>\n
Aguilera said the team\u2019s bond formed quickly, even among players who didn\u2019t know each other well at first.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey may not know each other the first day,\u201d he said. \u201cBut when they keep coming again and again and again, it becomes a friendship. After the friendship becomes a teammate, and they start caring about each other.\u201d<\/p>\n
The second teen injured in the shooting has been released from the hospital.<\/p>\n
Just two months ago, about 50 parents and students in Cabarrus County held a town hall to discuss how to keep teens safe and out of the criminal justice system. Now, the community is grieving the loss of another young life.<\/p>\n
\u00a92026 Cox Media Group<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CHARLOTTE \u2014 Friends, teammates, and family gathered Wednesday night in University City to honor a teenage soccer player…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":640622,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[239052,26381,49,239053,48,165010,163154,54258,141697,239048,170067,239047,1337,44,239050,170066,4550,561,82,239049,1062,239051],"class_list":["post-640621","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-aguilera","tag-alive","tag-ca","tag-cabaas_county","tag-canada","tag-channel_9","tag-channel_9_eyewitness_news","tag-concord","tag-eli","tag-eli_brand","tag-erica_bryant","tag-evan_donovan","tag-local","tag-news","tag-samuel_aguilera","tag-scott_wickersham","tag-silva","tag-soccer","tag-sports","tag-university_city","tag-video","tag-yannison_silva"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/640621","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=640621"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/640621\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/640622"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=640621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=640621"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=640621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}