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‘He wanted better’: 17-year-old killed in shooting outside Best Buy remembered as star athlete, promising student

shira moolten, south florida sun-sentinel
·5 min read
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Everyone knew Terrance Farrington Jr., or “TJ,” a star athlete and honor student at the small Pompano Beach school for at-risk teens, the kind of kid who would crack jokes all day but somehow managed to stay at the top of his class.

His parents, grandmother, cousins and fellow students gathered Tuesday to honor him in the Mitchell Moore Park football field, wind battering the blue and white balloons in their hands as they walked past boys practicing where Farrington Jr., a running back and receiver, would also practice with his teammates. Two of the balloons spelled “TJ.”

The 17-year-old was one of four people shot outside of the Best Buy at 12301 W. Sunrise Blvd. in Plantation on Saturday shortly after 8 p.m. He and three others had just left the store when another group confronted them and began shooting, striking Farrington and another in his group, as well as two bystanders. The other victims survived, but Farrington was killed.

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South Florida teens are part of a national uptick in gun violence among young people that has not abated since the pandemic, experts say; so far in 2024, 67 teenagers between ages 12 and 17 have been killed by gun violence in the United States, according to data kept by the Gun Violence Archive. More than 130 teens have been injured in shootings. Many of the perpetrators of those shootings are teens themselves.

But those who knew Farrington had not expected him to join those numbers.

“The difference between him and a lot of students that I’ve seen is that he wanted better,” Farrington’s football coach, Debarris James, told the Sun Sentinel on Tuesday. “Sometimes the kids get mixed up in situations where they think that they have to be cool, or have to hang with that crowd. But he was different.”

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‘Loved, not just liked’

Farrington Jr. was in 11th grade at Youth Under Construction, a private school with just over 100 students. It’s “almost like a second-chance school,” said Principal Delvin King, that tries to give students positive role models and activities to keep them out of trouble.

Tragedy has touched the lives of its students before; Farrington’s own brother died before him in a dirt bike accident, King said.

Everyone, not just teachers, knew Farrington. Some were too upset to come to the balloon release.

“He was loved, not just liked,” King said, and not just by other students but by “custodians, teachers, bus drivers.”

A running back, Farrington gave his all when it came to football, James said: “He was five-foot-six, but when he was on the field he was six-foot-five.”

In addition to being his football coach, James was Farrington’s math teacher.

“He was the jokester, you know, but then he would come up and say, ‘Here you go, Coach,’ and hand in his math assignment and get a 100,” he said.

Ardaijah McIntyre, 15, a cousin of Farrington’s who also goes to Youth Under Construction, described him as “joyful.” They’d often go to one another’s houses after school and hang out, cracking jokes, she said. He liked to make TikToks of himself dancing.

“It’s very sad,” she said. “Knowing he’s not there. Not talking, not laughing.”

Kourtney Davis, 16, a former student at Youth Under Construction, said she dated Farrington when they were both younger. They broke up when he moved far away.

“He was loving, sweet, careful,” she said. “He was a nice boyfriend.”

Plantation Police have not identified the other victims in the shooting, though they say the attack was targeted. It remains unclear whether Farrington was one of the targets or if he was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. Plantation Police have not identified the other victims and provided no updates on the investigation Tuesday besides saying it remained active.

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‘It takes a village’

Just before noon, the crowd of students formed a semi-circle at the edge of the field for the balloon release. In the center, Farrington’s grandmother gripped his father, Terrance Farrington Sr. His mother, Geraldine Hughes, joined them soon after, though none of them spoke.

“In life sometimes we don’t understand everything God does or God allows,” said Pastor Zedrick Young. “Yet today, I’ve got to encourage you, to let you know, that you’ve got to trust God.”

Protecting kids from South Florida’s gun violence epidemic is a constant battle for parents and mentors. David Miller works at Circle of the Brotherhood’s Pompano Beach arm, an organization dedicated to giving teens role models and purpose, keeping them off the streets. He knew Farrington Sr. from the neighborhood; they played little league together. Miller’s own nephew, Davon Johnson, died in a shooting in March 2023.

“We didn’t get all the way into 2024” without another shooting, he told the South Florida Sun Sentinel on Tuesday. But seeing all of the kids, teens and parents gathered at the park gave him some hope.

“There is a concern,” he said. “The effort in stopping it is getting better. The condition is not.”

The kids at Youth Under Construction often come from broken homes; working there means playing the role of parent, teacher, coach, and friend, said James, the football coach. But you still can’t control what happens outside those walls.

“It’s a true saying that it takes a village to raise the children,” he added. “And that’s what we’re doing. That’s what we have to do. We have no choice.”

When King, the school’s principal, got the call that Farrington had been killed, he asked himself what he could have done differently.

“He should have had a weekend activity,” King told the Sun Sentinel on Tuesday. So at a meeting with the school’s leadership team on Monday, they talked about getting kids more involved in weekend activities, “even if it’s just more games.”

“Everybody, stay encouraged,” King told the crowd Tuesday. “My students, stay encouraged.”

Then it was time to release the balloons.

“We love you, TJ!” the crowd yelled as they let go. The T and the J became blue specks in the sky and the wind took them over the highway.