A beloved Buffalo youth football coach was shot and killed when he tried to diffuse a fight between teenagers near his team’s game, according to the Buffalo News.
Norzell “Nore” Aldridge, a 36-year-old youth coach, was reportedly trying to intercede in a dispute between two teenagers. The incident was not related to the youth football game taking place nearby, and Aldridge is not known to have a direct connection to either of the two teens involved.
Rather, Aldridge and other coaches were still cleaning up the field following a game for his 9 and 10-year-old Beast Elite Ducks squad when the coach noticed two teens arguing in the distance at a nearby street corner. According to the News he walked over to the teenagers with the clear intent of diffusing the situation. Instead, he was shot.
Aldridge’s cousin was at the game and reportedly rushed the teenager to the nearby Erie County Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.
“He was trying to break up a fight,” Dwayne Warren, a friend of the coach, told the News. “The guy died a hero trying to save someone else’s life. He was trying to defuse the situation.”
The Beast Elite Ducks program and Buffalo youth sports community at large are all coming together to mourn the loss of a still young leader.
