Crime

Police make arrest in death of North Miami High football player. Here’s what we know

A 15-year-old has been arrested in connection with the fatal shooting of a North Miami High School quarterback.
A 15-year-old has been arrested in connection with the fatal shooting of a North Miami High School quarterback. Archive

The quarterback of the North Miami High football team was shot to death on Tuesday. On Wednesday, Miami-Dade police announced an arrest.

Here’s what to know:

Who was arrested?

A 15-year-old has been arrested in connection with the fatal shooting of a North Miami High School quarterback.

The charges

The Miami Gardens teenager was arrested on charges of manslaughter, possession of a firearm by a minor and for improperly exhibiting a firearm, Miami-Dade police announced Wednesday morning. He was taken to the Juvenile Assessment Center.

The Miami Herald is not naming the teen because he’s a minor and it’s not clear if he will be charged as an adult for the killing of 17-year-old Mekhi Stevenson, a junior and football player at North Miami High.

A 17-year-old was killed in a Miami-Dade shooting, police said. North Miami High football coach Gerald Cox identified the teen as quarterback Mekhi Stevenson.
A 17-year-old was killed in a Miami-Dade shooting, police said. North Miami High football coach Gerald Cox identified the teen as quarterback Mekhi Stevenson. WSVN-Fox 7

The shooting

The shooting happened around 1 p.m. inside a home in the area of 160 Sierra Dr. in Miami-Dade County, where Mekhi Stevenson and his brother were inside a bedroom with four friends, Miami-Dade police said.

The arrested teen took out a semi-automatic gun and started pointing it at others in the room and at the walls, according to his arrest affidavit. He also removed and reinserted the magazine into the gun.

Stevenson’s younger brother looked at the gun, told the 15-year-old it was loaded and asked him to “stop playing around with the firearm and put it away,” the affidavit states.

The 15-year-old teen “pulled the slide back partially to check and then stated that it wasn’t loaded because it didn’t eject a cartridge,” according to the affidavit. He continued to wave the gun around recklessly, pointed it at Stevenson “and intentionally pulled the trigger once,” police wrote in the affidavit.

After being shot in the chest, Stevenson ran to another room, collapsed and died, police said.

This story was originally published November 30, 2022 at 9:40 AM.

Michelle Marchante
Miami Herald
Michelle Marchante covers the pulse of healthcare in South Florida and also the City of Coral Gables. Before that, she covered the COVID-19 pandemic, hurricanes, crime, education, entertainment and other topics in South Florida for the Herald as a breaking news reporter. She recently won first place in the health reporting category in the 2025 Sunshine State Awards for her coverage of Steward Health’s bankruptcy. An investigative series about the abrupt closure of a Miami heart transplant program led Michelle and her colleagues to be recognized as finalists in two 2024 Florida Sunshine State Award categories. She also won second place in the 73rd annual Green Eyeshade Awards for her consumer-focused healthcare stories and was part of the team of reporters who won a 2022 Pulitzer Prize for the Miami Herald’s breaking news coverage of the Surfside building collapse. Michelle graduated with honors from Florida International University and was a 2025 National Press Foundation Covering Workplace Mental Health fellow and a 2020-2021 Poynter-Koch Media & Journalism fellow.  Support my work with a digital subscription
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