JEARICKA MACK - 14 yo - / Accused: Dontavious Copeland Gainesville FL

15 Year Old Girl Shot and Killed in Gainesville Parking Lot

by Alexandra Cowley

May 14th 2011 11:49pm

A 21st birthday celebration turned fatal. A 15 year old girl was shot and killed in a parking lot in Northwest Gainesville early this morning. Friends of Jearicka Mack say she was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Around 12:30 this morning, officers at a nearby traffic stop heard a gunshot. When they arrived to the Lions Club, officers say people were leaving the party, and others, gathered around Jearicka Mack in the parking lot. Officers tried to perform CPR, but Mack was pronounced dead on the scene. Police will not confirm where Mack was shot, but witnesses say it was in her head.

It was Jamal Holmes' 21st birthday party at the Lions Club on North Main Terrace last night. Mack was invited, but Holmes says a group of guys showed up that weren't. Holmes said he had asked the group to leave, but they came back and things turned ugly.
Holmes says he doesn't know how Mack got caught up in the fight.

Gainesville Police Detectives arrested 17 year old Dontavious Copeland around 2pm today. He is being held at the Juvenile Assessment Center in Gainesville. Even though an arrest has been made, the investigation is not over. Detectives are still interviewing witnesses, looking for answers as to the relationship between Copeland and Mack and the motive behind her murder.

http://www.wcjb.com/news/9442/15-year-old-girl-shot-and-killed-in-gainesville-parking-lot

Remembering "Pooh"

by Kristin Giannas

May 16th 2011 11:24pm

It appears that 15-year-old Jearicka Mack was in the wrong place at the wrong time-killed in the crossfire between rival gangs.

Mack was one of just 89 students in the freshmen class at Trenton High School, making her absence-- that much more noticeable.

"She was my best friend...and it's just so hard that she gone," said T'Keyha Powell, Mack's best friend.

Mack was shot and killed Saturday while at a birthday party in Gainesville. News that's sinking in among her peers.

"I was in denial... and I told her, no she can't be... and she really was," said Powell.

Mack's friends and family called her "Pooh."

"She was very outgoing, loved to talk, always smiling... always had something to tell you," said Khalil Kearson, a close friend and classmate.

"We met last week and went over her grades and over her classes for next year. She was very focused, very concerned about how she could raise her GPA," said Mandy NeSmith, Mack's guidance counselor.

Dontavious Copeland, 17-years-old, a known gang member, was arrested for killing Mack.

Jearicka's dad, Jearick Mack, told TV20, "Upon hearing of her death, it crushed me because I didn't want to believe that had happened.

It crushed my heart. It took a lot from me. When I first held her as a baby, she had a smile on her face--and she has been happy ever since."


http://www.wcjb.com/news/9455/remembering-pooh

bump

Fatal teen shooting leaves shattered lives


Doug Finger/Staff Photographer
Sabrina Cook talks about the death of her granddaughter Jearicka Mack, 15, from her office at Lake Forest Elementary School Thursday.

Police say 17-year-old Dontavious Copeland fired the shot at a party that killed Mack.

By Kimberly Moore Wilmoth

May 21, 2011 at 11:46 p.m.


GAINESVILLE -- It was about half past midnight on Saturday, May 14, when a large crowd of teenagers and young people spilled out from the Lions Club on North Main Terrace into the club's parking lot and that of the neighboring Fraternal Order of Police.

They were stirred up after hours of dancing and posturing, and fights were erupting within several angry pockets.

As the melee in the parking lot reached a crescendo of cat calls and punches, a lone, loud bang punctured the darkness.

Like a boulder dropped in a river, the gunshot sent the crowd scattering in all directions. It also left 15-year-old Jearicka Mack dying on the asphalt.

By the next afternoon, 17-year-old Dontavious Copeland was in custody at the Juvenile Detention Center, charged with murder in connection with Jearicka's death.

The crowd at the University City Lions Club that night was celebrating Jamaal Holmes' 21st birthday. Holmes had paid about $300 to rent out the hall, according to Lions Club officials, and police have said the hall was packed with teenagers and young adults.

Attendees either had to pay at the door or bring a gift in order to get in, police have said -- stipulations that would have qualified the party as a “dance hall” event, for which a permit is required. Holmes had not obtained a permit, and police have filed a sworn complaint against him.

Once inside, the partygoers were met by a deejay and thumping rap music. The revelry soon devolved into bickering, police say, as three rival gangs -- the Wolfpack, Out East and Out West -- squared off throughout the course of the party. As the deejay set a simmering tempo, police said young men flashed their fingers in various signs to show their gang allegiances.



http://www.ocala.com/article/20110521/ARTICLES/110529940

Can Gun Bring Peace?

by Kristin Giannas

May 25th 2011 10:01am

Gainesville police arrest a second suspect in the shooting death of Jearicka Mack, the 15-year-old Trenton High School student known by many as "Pooh."

However, many questions in the case still remain unanswered.

"I can't believe it till I see her..." said Jantevia Mack, 18, who will bury her sister Jearicka this week.

"It's not gonna be the same without my sister," she said Tuesday, "I want to know the true story."

Pooh was shot and killed in the parking lot of the Lions Club in Gainesville. Detectives have the shooter and the man who drove him to and from the scene, but one question remains: where is the gun?

"The original suspect never even admitted he had a gun, and Mr. Demps is saying he doesn't know where the gun is at this point," said Bennie Smith, GPD Detective.

Police arrested Simeon Demps, 18, on Monday. Detectives say he drove the alleged shooter, Dontavious Copeland, 17, to his apartment to change clothes. Cops found the clothes, but no gun.

"More often than not we don't get the gun, the state attorney's office can go forward with prosecution without the gun," he said.

However, Pooh's sister says she won't go forward until the gun, and the person who has it, steps up. She adds, the men arrested so far, were "friends" of Pooh's.

"The others ones called her sister, we called them brother, all of us hung together, went to school with each other, and that's what makes me you know? That's just crazy. That's what I don't get, and then they don't don't wanna step forward," said Mack.

There's a $1,000 reward for anyone with information on the gun's whereabouts.

Pooh's funeral is Saturday, May 28th at 1PM, at Westside Baptist Church off Newberry Road.



http://www.wcjb.com/news/9535/can-gun-bring-peace