JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 A Mandarin High School football star is fighting for his life in the ICU after being shot in the head this weekend.<\/p>\n
The Jacksonville Sheriff\u2019s Office is investigating Saturday\u2019s shooting at a San Marco neighborhood as an accident.<\/p>\n
>>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <<<<\/a><\/p>\n But the teenager\u2019s family and friends are demanding more answers.<\/p>\n Those closest to Mikah Howell sing the 17-year-old\u2019s praises.<\/p>\n \u201cMikah is the sweetest, most loving, caring child,\u201d Justine Vazquez, Mikah\u2019s close family friend, said.<\/p>\n They don\u2019t share DNA, but Mikah and Justine Vazquez are family.<\/p>\n \u201cI still get text messages from him saying \u2018Auntie, can you come pick me up?\u2019 He knows I\u2019m always there for him,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Saturday night, Vazquez said Mikah was hanging out with friends at a home on Inwood Terrace in San Marco when he was shot in the head.<\/p>\n RELATED: JSO responding to a shooting in the San Marco area<\/a> <\/p>\n JSO\u2019s incident report doesn\u2019t shed much light on what led up to the shooting. JSO only told us they\u2019re investigating the shooting as an accident, though that doesn\u2019t necessarily mean charges won\u2019t ultimately be filed in this case. <\/p>\n Mikah\u2019s family thinks there\u2019s more to the story.<\/p>\n \u201cA gun falling on the ground and going off, that\u2019s an accident. Shooting someone in the head, that\u2019s not an accident,\u201d Vazquez said.<\/p>\n Family members say the swelling on Mikah\u2019s head needs to go down before doctors can operate and remove the bullet.<\/p>\n [DOWNLOAD: Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks<\/a>]<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s not an athlete that is the athlete that \u2018Oh I\u2019m an athlete, so I have to keep my grades up.\u2019 He\u2019s the, \u2018I\u2019ve got good grades so I can play and I\u2019m smart.\u2019 Super smart, 4.0 GPA,\u201d Vazquez said.<\/p>\n Mikah is a rising senior at Mandarin High School where he\u2019s a star receiver on the football team. He\u2019s also in the Cambridge program and wants to study civil engineering at the University of Central Florida.<\/p>\n A GoFundMe has been set up to help the family with expenses. To learn more about that, click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n [SIGN UP: Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter<\/a>] <\/p>\n Mikah\u2019s mom shared the following message about her son with Action News Jax on Wednesday and allowed us to share it:<\/p>\n \u201cMy son, Mikah Howell, is 17 years old. On Saturday, our lives changed forever when he was shot in the head. Today, he remains in the ICU fighting for his life.<\/p>\n \u201cThe bullet cannot be removed, and right now we do not know what the future holds. Every day is uncertain. Every hour is a waiting game. We are taking things one moment at a time, praying for healing, strength, and a miracle.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat people need to know is that Mikah is so much more than what happened to him.<\/p>\n \u201cMikah is a student in the Cambridge AICE Program with dreams of attending the University of Central Florida and becoming a Civil Engineer specializing in Urban Planning and Development. He is intelligent, driven, and determined. He has played football, run track, and excelled both academically and athletically.<\/p>\n \u201cBut what makes Mikah truly special is his heart.<\/p>\n \u201cHe has a way of making every person feel important, like they are the only person in the room. He is kind, loving, compassionate, and fearless. He lights up every room he walks into and leaves people smiling wherever he goes. He loves being around people and genuinely enjoys making others feel seen, valued, and cared for.<\/p>\n \u201cAs his mother, I have watched him grow into an incredible young man. He is wise beyond his years, a natural problem solver, and someone who never gives up when faced with a challenge. If there is something he wants to learn, solve, or accomplish, he puts his whole heart into it until he succeeds. He is not your average teenager. He has big dreams, a bright future, and so much life left to live.<\/p>\n \u201cOur family is devastated, but we are standing strong beside him as he fights. We are asking our community for prayers, support, and help bringing awareness to the devastating impact of gun violence.<\/p>\n \u201cMy son is not a headline. He is not a statistic.<\/p>\n He is Mikah. He is loved beyond measure. He is someone\u2019s child, someone\u2019s friend, someone\u2019s teammate, and someone\u2019s future.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd today, he is fighting for his life.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are asking anyone with information to come forward so our family can get answers and justice. We will continue to fight for Mikah just as hard as he is fighting every day.\u201d<\/p>\n Click here<\/a> to download the free Action News Jax news and weather apps, click here<\/a> to download the Action News Jax Now app for your smart TV and click here<\/a> to stream Action News Jax live.<\/p>\n Action News Jax Top Stories<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 A Mandarin High School football star is fighting for his life in the ICU after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":303499,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[127316,127314,127313,969,116,118,117,127309,1872,127312,634,70682,127311,127310,115,31050,127315,1871],"class_list":["post-303498","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-bliss_seman","tag-cambridge","tag-inwood_terrace","tag-jack","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news","tag-jacques_bliss_zeman","tag-jso","tag-justine_vasquez","tag-local","tag-mandarin_high_school","tag-micah","tag-micah_howell","tag-news","tag-san_marco","tag-university_of_central_florida","tag-vasquez"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303498","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=303498"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303498\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/303499"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=303498"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=303498"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=303498"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}