Jackson-Olin honors honor student killed in November at graduation ceremony
At the Jackson-Olin High School graduation on Friday, Gerald Lomax Jr.'s parents received his diploma in his honor.
Lomax was shot and killed in November.
A Jackson-Olin high school senior and student-athlete was remembered as an "upstanding student" who was "a favorite of the administration" and "a favorite of his peers."
"Ready to graduate, ready to embark upon life and find his path to, you know, to success," Birmingham City Schools board member Jason Meadows said of 17-year-old Gerald Lomax Jr. "And so everything in front of him, it was all snatched away from him by a senseless act of violence."
Birmingham Police said Gerald Lomax Jr. was shot after leaving a Woodlawn High School basketball game.
"They are there taking it hard like the cheerleaders and the football team," Birmingham City Schools board member Jason Meadows said Wednesday. "It's devastating when you have someone who was doing the right things, who was a favorite of the administration, a favorite of his peers. And yet this happens."
His football coach Joe Webb said Lomax was at the basketball game to support his friends but Birmingham investigators said as he was leaving, Lomax got into an argument.
As Lomax and a friend tried to drive away, someone opened fire into the car about two blocks away from Woodlawn High School, hitting Lomax, who was sitting in the passenger seat.
"They brought him back to the school to get help," Meadows said. "They knew that we have, like, resource officers that, there's police presence in the front of the school."
Lomax was rushed to UAB Hospital where he died the next day after being taken off of life support.
The loss hit the Jackson-Olin family from staff to students, hard, as Meadows said he was a teen with a bright future.
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"I talked to his principal, Mr. Daniels, and he said that he was a reserved young man and that everybody liked him," Meadows said. "He was a team favorite. Wasn't a really just outgoing guy, but the football team really was fond of him."
Now as the school and community grapple with the loss, Meadows said it's even harder knowing Lomax was on a path to success when his life was tragically cut short.
"He was never a problem," Meadows said. "And so I think to me, that's the more concerning thing, is that when you are a upstanding student doing things the right way, that you still can't avoid these types of situations."