‘I wish this pain on nobody’: Football standout fatally shot in Parramore day after celebrating 21st birthday, family says

ORLANDO, Fla. — Crime scene tape stretched across Bentley Street on Monday morning after a man was fatally shot in Parramore.

Family and friends gathered to grieve a life they say was taken too soon. They said Demetrius Cox Jr. celebrated his 21st birthday Sunday.

“This was a great kid,” Shawanda Lester said. “He went to college to play football. He was being scouted. This is sad.”

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Tears were hard to hold back as loved ones mourned their loss of Cox.

“I wish this pain on nobody,” Lester said.

Cox’s family said he was shot and killed right outside his family home.

“I got a call at 2 o’clock in the morning telling me to come to Bentley Street,” said Jakia Burton, Cox’s mother. “I already knew what it was. A call from my best friend. I said, ‘Is my son dead?’ She said ‘Yeah, now get over there.’”

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Orlando police got a 911 call just after 3 a.m. about gunfire near Amelia Street and Orange Blossom Trail.

There were evidence markers for shell casings littered in the street.

After the reports of gunfire, police said they got a call about a shooting victim near the intersection of Westmoreland Drive and Bentley Street.

Investigators taped off the block. Officers, detectives, and crime scene technicians filled the area.

So did the victim’s family and friends.

More than 30 people stood in the cold for hours waiting for details about this football standout and West Oaks Academy graduate, including his mother.

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“Only thing I can say is I wish this all would stop,” she said. “I’m not saying my son was a saint, but he was at the wrong place at the wrong time.”

Detectives had a white Audi and a black Corvette with bullet holes towed from the scene.

“Please, help this is pain,” Burton said. “This homicide stuff is too much. So please, if anyone know something please come forward.”

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Officers have not given any information about the suspect.

See map of scene below:

Video: Person fatally shot near Orange Blossom Trail in Orlando A person was fatally shot in Orlando Monday morning. (Q McCray)

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