Eagles devastated by football player’s death
Edgewater High football coach Cameron Duke was devastated by the news when he heard late Wednesday.
One of his players, senior defensive end Gerald Anderson, was shot and killed, the victim of “a poor decision” that cost him his life when he and fellow 18-year-old Luismil Hernandez allegedly broke into a west Orange County home Wednesday afternoon. The apparent robbery attempt ended in a shootout with Orlando homeowner Juan Caraballo, according to police reports.
Duke was still distraught Saturday when talking about the incident.
“It’s extremely tough. It’s been devastating,” said Duke, the first-year Edgewater coach who was hired a year ago after three years at Lake Highland Prep. “When I first took the job in January [2017] I met Gerald and I understood that he had a rough past, but he had really made drastic changes in his life while I was coaching him … while he was part of the program.
“He was on track to graduate and had been accepted to Bethune-Cookman. He was with us this season and it’s … it’s just been heartbreaking. I’ve never dealt with something like this before in my life.”
Duke said this past season was Anderson’s first as a member of the Edgewater football program.
“When he was with us, he was great. He didn’t miss any summer workouts, didn’t miss a practice and he apparently got caught up with the wrong people after football ended,” Duke said.
In the police report that wrong person was allegedly Hernandez, with whom Anderson’s mother Kimberly Law said her son had left the house earlier in the day Wednesday.
Homeowner Caraballo was shot during the robbery attempt, the report read, and was taken by ambulance to Orlando Regional Medical Center.
Following surgery, he was stable condition.
On the Edgewater football team, Anderson was a backup end who played a role in helping the Eagles reach the Class 8A playoffs.
“He played a lot of games for us and from my end as a coach, I saw the good in him,” Duke said. “I didn’t know the young man he was with. We’re all just trying to rally from this.
“[Anderson] was a young man who listed in had gotten serious about his grades, got serious about moving on and had gotten accepted to a college. He was a guy who we knew had some stuff going on, but when you walk into a new program you give everybody an opportunity to define who they are and with us he was a student-athlete and the news has literally broken us.
“He was making so many decisions in his life that were positive and to be honest, this is the toughest thing I’ve ever been through,” Duke said. “I saw the good in him.”