PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — Hundreds of people, including family, friends and teammate packed a local church today to say goodbye to a Gateway High School football player.

Darrell Turner Jr. was shot and killed last week in North Carolina. Turner was on his way to a football tournament and touring college campuses.

Teammates and friends carried the casket of the 18-year-old from Potter’s House Ministries in Mt. Oliver. Turner joined the church weeks before he was shot and killed in North Carolina.

“Around Easter time he recommitted himself to the Lord and then got busy with football and different things like that,” said Lynne Brentley from Potter’s House Ministries.

Turner, a senior at Gateway High School, was killed during a brief confrontation with 22-year-old Gabriel Gamez while walking back to his hotel in Durham. Turner was with a group of local football players visiting college campuses before heading to a football tournament in Florida.

“I hope it doesn’t happen to none of my other friends, and I pray every night till now he’s in a better place,” said Turner’s childhood friend Davon Dawson.

Henry Chapman, another friend of Turner, said, “Darrell Turner was a beautiful young man at heart soul spirit, excellent football player.”

Bishop Loran Mann delivered a message of hope to the family. He called turners death another senseless act of violence that has got to stop.

“We cannot allow this life to be taken in vain, we’ve got to work to improve our society,” Mann said.

Turner was considered a hard worker who had a bright future as a Division I college football prospect.

“The awfulness of this tragedy is that we will never know what Darrell Turner may have become,” Mann said.

Gateway High School football coach Terry Smith also agreed they will never know what Turner’s future would have been like.

“But i can tell you this, he was on the path to being a great person,” Smith said.

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