Four teenagers have been arrested for the drive-by killing of a 16-year-old Nashville high school student as he left a football game with his younger brother.
Jon’quavous Johns-Collins, 18, Marcelle Stem Jr., 17, Lil Tay Webster, 17, and Zachkeius Brown, 16, each face charges of criminal homicide and engaging in criminal conspiracy, the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department announced Friday. The arrests came exactly six weeks after Cameron Frierson, 16, was gunned down in front of Chris, his younger brother, following the August 21 game at Pearl-Cohn High School.
The four suspects were inside a vehicle from which “multiple shots were fired” at approximately 10:30 p.m., police said. Cameron, a junior at Hunters Lane High School, was struck by the gunfire and found with several wounds by responding officers. He was transported to Vanderbilt University Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead. His brother was not injured.
Witnesses at the time reported the shots came from a white sedan with tinted windows. All four suspects were underage at the time of the shooting and were charged in juvenile court, according to a police media release. Investigators have not publicly disclosed a motive.
Brittany Frierson, the slain teen’s mother, confronted one of her son’s accused killers in court on Friday and vowed to attend every proceeding.
“I don’t care how long it takes. I’m going to be here every day,” she told WKRN-TV.
The grieving mother also issued a direct warning to the four defendants about her presence in the courtroom.
“I don’t care how long it takes. I’m going to be here every day,” she continued. “They will see my face at every court hearing.”
Despite her anguish, Brittany Frierson expressed complicated feelings about the teenagers accused of killing her son. She told the outlet she feels empathy for their backgrounds, though she insisted it does not excuse their alleged actions.
“I feel a lot of empathy for them because I know what type of background they came from, and I know they probably didn’t have the easiest route, but that doesn’t give them the right to hurt somebody else,” she said.
She maintained her son had no connection to his alleged killers and suggested the violence was indiscriminate.
“My son did nothing to them,” she said. “If it wasn’t Cameron, it would have been somebody that night because they already had it in their heads. That’s what they wanted to do.”
The mother also framed the killing as a broader failure of community and parenting, urging collective responsibility for preventing youth violence.
“We have to do better with our kids,” she pleaded. “Those kids were obviously hurting bad enough where they felt the need to go out and hurt someone else.”
“It starts at home,” she stressed.
At the same court hearing where she confronted one suspect, Brittany Frierson expressed gratitude that the case was moving forward.
“Thankful that my son is going to get the justice that he deserves because he didn’t deserve this,” she said.
She also spoke directly about her loss in visceral terms.
“He was mine, and you didn’t have a right to take him from me,” she said.
Police continue to investigate the circumstances that led to the shooting.