MIAMI – Teachers and students from Miami Northwestern Senior High School are mourning the loss of a 10th-grader and a former student who were killed in a shooting in Liberty City over the weekend.
"If he got a B, he wanted to know what can he do to get an A in his assignment. That's the student we know," Kimson Green's teacher, Shakeita Gunder, said.
Another teen killed in the shooting was identified as Rickey Dixon, 18, a former student at the school.
"Rickey was a good kid -- outgoing. We never had problems with Ricky," Dixon's aunt, Shirelda Huntley Thomas, said.
School officials said Green, 17, was about to be inducted into the National Honor Society.
"It's really tragic because he's a good kid, he's mannerable, he's respectful, he puts the work in, and the results -- you can see it through the results," the student's writing teacher, Valencia Woodbine, said.
Relatives said Green was an only child.
"I got to bury my child -- my only child," Dominique Green said. "Parents be saying I had a good child. No, I really had an A1A student -- an A1A student – it's just where I live at. That's all."
Miami police said a group of people were in the alleyway off Northwest 63rd Street and 13th Avenue Sunday afternoon when a group of men approached them and started shooting.
"We don't know if it's a drive-by or if they came on foot," Miami police Officer Kiara Delva said.
Miami Fire Rescue personnel pronounced Dixon dead at the scene. Green died at the hospital and two more people remain hospitalized in critical condition.
Police said upward of 25 gunshots were heard in the area.
All four of the victims either currently or used to attend Miami Northwestern Senior High School, school officials said.
Student-activist Emma Gonzalez, who attends Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, voiced her support Monday for the students of Miami Northwestern.
"Liberty City is on my mind, sadly not for the usual reasons," she posted on Twitter. "We gotta use this grief, take it in our hands and mold the future with it; the best way to feel relief from pain is to prevent it from happening to anyone else. Injustice Anywhere is Injustice Everywhere. #LibertyStrong."
#LibertyCity is on my mind, sadly not for the usual reasons. We gotta use this grief, take it in our hands and mold the future with it; the best way to feel relief from pain is to prevent it from happening to anyone else. Injustice Anywhere is Injustice Everywhere. #LibertyStrong
— Emma González (@Emma4Change) April 9, 2018
Teachers at Miami Northwestern are vowing to support their students and each other during this difficult time.
"So, we're going to work together as family, because we are a family here and we're going to take this one day at a time," Gunder said.
Miami-Dade County Public Schools Superintendent Alberto Carvalho was at the school Monday and said the community needs to step up to prevent gun violence.
He's pushing youth mentorship and wants more funding for youth and athletic programs.
"If we do not recruit kids in to the good, someone's going to try to recruit them into the bad," he said.
Carvalho is asking anyone with information about the shooting to contact police. He said tipsters' identities will be hidden under a new witness protection law.
Anonymous tips can be made by calling Miami-Dade Crime Stoppers at 305-471-TIPS.