'Heartbreaking': Morgan Park HS baseball team mourn former player shot, killed while away at college

CHICAGO (WLS) -- A former standout athlete from Chicago's Morgan Park High School was shot and killed while away at college.

Jatonne Sterling was found dead near Clark Atlanta University campus in Atlanta, Georgia.

Practice is canceled Wednesday for the Morgan Park Mustangs.

"I got to bury another ball player," said Coach Ernest Radcliffe, the Morgan Park HS head baseball coach. "We're not supposed to do that."

News that former championship baseball player Jatonne Sterling from Morgan Park High School was shot and killed while away at college is hitting hard.

"All my players from all over crying, broke down. Everywhere, all over the country, players calling me 'How did this happen to Sterling,'" Coach Radcliffe said.

"It's hard, especially seeing how my coach is taking all this. I can tell he is very disappointed and hurt," said Lewis Dean, a Morgan Park HS senior.

"It's tragic it wasn't supposed to happen he was a ball player," said fellow Morgan Park HS senior, Kyle Duff-Hudson.

Sterling was a sophomore on a baseball scholarship at Clark Atlanta University and was fatally shot in a parking lot very close to campus Tuesday.

Atlanta police are investigating.

Some students who played with Sterling on the 2021 championship team are still at Morgan Park.

Like too many Chicago teens, Sterling is not the only one close to them who they've lost to gun violence.

"It's just crazy how life works and how things can happen unexpectedly," said Morgan Park HS senior Kion Williams. "It's scary because that thing could happen to all of us."

"It's still unreal to me. I can't wrap my head around it. It's so unfortunate," said fellow Morgan Park HS senior, Shaun Charles II.

"I never thought anything like this could happen. I always looked up to him as a leader," said Derek Johnson, a Morgan Park HS junior. "He was older. He always put his best effort into everything he did."

His baseball coach, who had known Sterling since he was a young kid, worked at Morgan Park and with other youth sports programs to help young people pursue their dreams. They said they thought Sterling was well on his way.

"He was a student and an athlete and a leader on his team," said Michael McKinnis, Morgan Park HS assistant coach. "It's heartbreaking, it really is heartbreaking. I don't think there is another word I can use to describe it."

The Morgan Park Mustangs season opener is March 14. The players said this year they will play for Sterling.