Tuscaloosa County school district mourns loss of fifth student this school year

TUSCALOOSA Ala, (WBRC) - Shock and sadness are reverberating throughout the Tuscaloosa County school district the day after 16-year-old David Martin, Jr. was shot to death just inside the Northport city limits.

We learned Tuesday that Martin was a freshman at Tuscaloosa County High School and school leaders say a number of students are taking this very hard.

Martin became the fifth student from the Tuscaloosa County school district to lose their life this school year, a sad statistic noted by mental health coordinator Angela Kelly.

“This is our fifth one in six months since being in school and not all are violent deaths,” said Kelly.

Police say Martin died after he was shot several times in his vehicle Monday afternoon just inside the Northport city limits at an apartment complex on Valleys Hill Street.

“We’re better than this. As a community and as a city and as a county, we’re better than having our teenagers getting shot,” said Northport Mayor Bobby Herndon.

“We have a community that’s shaken,” Kelly said.

Kelly says a number of Martin’s fellow classmates took advantage of grief counseling offered Tuesday by the school system at Tuscaloosa County High.

“Still grieving from previous ones and then we have it happen again, and so it’s almost a re-traumatization of what’s going on,” Kelly said.

Both Mayor Herndon and Kelly say the time has long come for the violence to stop.

“I’m tired of talking about it. We want to actually do something about it,” said Kelly.

“Our prayers and thoughts go out to the family. You don’t ever get used to it,” said Mayor Herndon.

For now, a teenager is gone and the school district has lost yet another one.

According to the Tuscaloosa Violent Crimes Unit, 18-year-old Ladamien Rogers-Wallace has been charged with capital murder.

A second suspect has also been arrested and charged with capital murder. The defendant is under the age of 18 and will be charged as an adult. Their name has not been released.

Friday, a third suspect, 18-year-old Tobias Alexander Clark, was arrested and charged with capital murder. He is in the Tuscaloosa County Jail with no bond.

The motive remains unknown.

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