One by one, they came to shed tears, share memories and say good-bye to the young football star and soon-to-be father they knew and loved.
Jasper Howard was finally laid to rest Monday afternoon, more than a week after he was fatally stabbed in the stomach following a late night campus party at the University of Connecticut on the morning of Oct. 18.
No one has been charged in the death of the 20-year-old former Miami Edison High football and track star. As police spent the weekend searching storm drains and a nearby lake where Howard was killed, his family and friends continued to mourn.
"He was the ultimate son, the ultimate brother, the ultimate teammate and the ultimate friend," University of Connecticut coach Randy Edsall said. "And he was going to be the ultimate husband."
On Monday, several hundred people participated in "the celebration of Howard's life" inside the New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in North Miami. His mother Joangela Howard, father Alex Moore, two youngers sisters, and his 18-year-old pregnant girlfriend Daneisha Freeman sat near the dark blue coffin where his body laid as others spoke about him.
Flanked next to the family, the entire University of Connecticut football team, which arrived in four large white buses wearing ribbons with the initials JH and 6, Howard's number, pinned to their suit jackets.
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