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Twin Cities
Elizabeth Shockman

Minneapolis high school student, 15, dies after shooting

Deshaun Hill Jr. Commemoration
An attendee holds a portrait honoring North High School student Deshaun Hill during a basketball game on Saturday. Hill, a quarterback on the Polars football team, died Thursday after being shot in Minneapolis. Hundreds of community members gathered for the event to condemn neighborhood violence and grieve the loss of Hill, 15, a beloved family member, friend, and student.
Tim Evans for MPR News

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Deshaun Hill, who played on the football team at North High School, and whom staff remembered as an “incredible young man,” died after being shot in Minneapolis. He was 15.

a boy playing football
Deshaun Hill
Courtesy of Trent Witz

“We cannot begin to express the sadness we feel as a result of this devastating loss,” Minneapolis Public School Superintendent Ed Graff said in a statement Thursday evening. “This bright young man had everything to live for and a promising future ahead of him.”

The shooting Wednesday at an off-campus location in north Minneapolis happened on the same day as a separate shooting in a different location that wounded a school bus driver. Minneapolis police have not released details of Hill’s shooting.

“The gun violence in our community has to stop. Our youth deserve to feel and be safe,” Graff said.

a boy in a letter jacket
Deshaun Hill
Courtesy of Trent Witz

Larry McKenzie, a coach at North High School who knew Hill, asked for prayers.

“The pain of watching my kids in tears over the loss of a teammate and friend is so difficult. A man of many words all of a sudden is speechless and doesn’t know what to say. Prayer warriors please lift our Minneapolis North High in prayer. We are hurting bad right now,” McKenzie, a basketball coach, said in a Twitter post.

Hill, a sophomore, was a quarterback on the Polars football team.

Derek Francis is one of a team of counselors who spent time at North on Thursday with students and staff where he said the community was deeply affected.

“There’s so much love and compassion and community at North High in north Minneapolis. All of us want the best for our kids and our families. North High families want that too,” Francis said.

Hill spent time at Lucy Laney Elementary. The school posted a photo online of him from when he was a student there, saying Hill “grew up to be such an incredible young man. What a tragedy to lose him.”