Childs USF football star gets shot in road rage incident

The University of South Florida’s defensive back Hassan Childs is a small-for-football defensive back. Mr. Childs may or may not scare receivers coming over the middle of the field. But when he tried to intimidate another driver by pointing a silver handgun at him, Mr. Childs met his match.

The other driver, Jovanni Jimenez, is licensed to carry by the state of Florida. Mr. Jimenez pulled his own handgun and rapidly and promiscuously perforated his would-be attacker. The New York Daily News has the details:

According to police, Jimenez was driving with his family around 11:15 p.m. when he noticed a Chevy Malibu tailing and trying to pass him. He pulled into the Eagles Point Apartments at Tampa Palms, and Childs followed.

Jimenez’s wife, Jennifer, saw Childs pointing a gun at their car, but Jimenez did not notice at the time, the report said. Jimenez started to drive again, according to police, but after his wife mentioned the firearm, he removed his gun from his waistband and placed it on his seat.

Childs continued to tail Jimenez, who pulled over once again. This time, the USF football player reportedly pulled up to the driver’s side of Jimenez’s car and pointed a handgun toward Jimenez.

Jimenez then shot Childs, who was hit in the torso and upper arm, three times in self defense, police said. He drove home and called 911.

Police recovered a loaded firearm (both men have concealed weapons permits) and 20 grams of marijuana from Childs’ car.

The college athlete’s football days have probably have come to an end.

On Monday, the university said in a statement that it was aware of Child’s [sic] arrest. “Childs is currently withheld from all football-related activities for an indefinite period of time.

When the university learns of an arrest, the student involved may be subject to discipline in accordance with USF’s Student Code of Conduct. State and federal privacy laws protecting the confidentiality of student records, including disciplinary actions, prevent the university from commenting further about the matter involving Childs.”

Mr. Child’s suspension from the USF’s football program would seem to be the least of his worries. If convicted, the only football he’ll be playing for a while will be against the prison guards’ team.

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75 COMMENTS

  1. Man, it sucks that Mr. Jimenez had to go through that, but I’m glad he was prepared and was able to protect his family.

    • As much as you like to poke fun, there is such a thing as a white Hispanic. Hispanic is not a race. If you go to Argentina, you’ll see what people mean by that, but you can also meet black Hispanics if you go to Cuba or Dominican Republic, or even Puerto Rico.

      • I’m not poking fun. In progressive-land there are no legitimate defensive gun uses. ‘Somebody’ must necessarily be racist. The Hispanic defender must therefore be ‘white’, enabling the necessary race-baiting.

        • A clue we all need to get used to; someone who cannot hold a conversation without constant reference to everyone’s race, is called a “racist”. Barack Obama has made that obvious in the past 8 years. OTOH, if you have a conversation over a 6-pack with someone, discussing all manner of good and bad acts of neighbors or friends, and no one mentions anyone’s race all night, you have left racism behind. Think Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, Whoopi Goldberg. Then think Oprah. Charles Paine. Ben Carson. Who is a racist is clear.

      • No mames guerro, hes talking about the zimmerman case in which he was presented as a white hispanic.

        • Well, obviously there is a difference, but I think Zimmerman actually is a Hispanic white. He’s certainly not black or Native American. I mean, my wife isn’t what you think of when you think of “white”, but she’s still listed as white/Hispanic, and that’s exactly what she fills out on the 4473.

      • Yes you’re right. I myself am a “white Hispanic” though I have people in my family with darker skin. I consider myself a white man and I look white. I am annoyed with all the white bashing currently going on yet I’m sure the KKK wouldn’t consider me white.

        But when the left media coined that term we all know exactly what they were doing. Especially since the left are the ones who pretend Hispanics are a race in the first place.

        This is the problem with identity politics, once you dive a little deeper it unravels. Identity is complicated and multifaceted. Just like how “whites” get lumped together despite having lots of genetic and ethnic diversity.

        Good post.

        And bravo to the defender.

  3. Mr. Childs clearly didn’t pay attention in his CCW class. Not too smart, and he’s in college!

      • Another wana be millionaire football player. HES A PLAYA YALL! A PLAYA!

        His spot on the team is probably already been filled by another thinking they are hot stuff.

    • Unfortunately, there is no correlation between intelligence and college.

      One of Samuel Clemens’ sayings comes to mind-“Education: that which reveals to the wise, and conceals from the stupid, the vast limitations of their knowledge.”

    • Very likely, he was admitted to benefit the football team, not to get an education. That happened at a local college with a strong basketball program. Professors were pressured to give passing grades to a functionally illiterate player. One of them blew the whistle which caused a scandal. The player was expelled but the college ended up paying to teach him to read and write.

        • The state university where I live used to be part of the old Big Eight although my example came from a private college with a good reputation otherwise. When I attended a different Big Eight school, one of my friends tutored a football player. His performance on the field determined whether he kept his scholarship but his grades determined whether he could stay in school. The basketball example was much more blatant.

        • Sorry, pal, but this kind of thing’s been going on for a loooong time. In the 60s, I worked in a grocery store after high school. When the local college’s team showed up for summer practice sessions, I learned about “standards.” If one of them bought something for, say, $1.10 and tended me a five spot, I knew enough NOT to ask him if he had the dime by any chance; too confusing for him. And it wasn’t a “race question” since most of the muscular dummies were White then.

      • With the notable exception of Stanford, pretty much every college football and basketball program is 96% populated with guys who see a classroom if they have to walk past it to get to the locker room. Marginally literate people who would never qualify to be students in any academic sense, are regularly passed on through the system. Having a money making athletics program is important to the school, and winning is important for the alums to write checks. It’s de rigueur for them to be passed through.

        • My wife had a football player in a freshman class she taught at a large SEC university. The pressure from coaches to pass him was incessant. She didn’t, but she also opted not to check his grade at some point after she submitted it. I think she would have done bodily harm if someone had changed his grade-don’t know that they did, but it would not surprise me.

        • @Gray Poseur, Fair enough, apparently they got a new coach a couple of years back, and they’ve adopted the same joke standards as the rest of college football. Mea culpa.

        • Don’t forget the US military service academies (West Point, Annapolis, USAFA). They manage to field somewhat competitive football teams, with all their players being held to same (EXTREMELY high standards) as the rest of the cadet wing (or whatever the Canoe U and Greyskull Keep equivalents are). Not only are the academic standards very rigorous compared to most NCAA schools, but the physical standards really hurt too (with the distance-running and pull-up components to the AFT, as well as height/weight standards, it’s really biased against the body types that make effective linemen, for instance).

  4. Jimenez was wise to stay inside his car and not confront Childs. That preserved his innocence which is one of the critical requirements for a valid claim of self defense.

    Pulling over, presumably to give Childs an unmistakable opportunity to pass, also was legally wise. However, it might have been even better to continue driving and call 911 to report being followed by an armed, angry driver. Let the police catch up and deal with Childs. They have better legal cover if the situation deteriorates into a gunfight.

    • I disagree Kendahl.
      You mean when when seconds count, the police are only minutes away?
      Wrong.

      Mr. Jimenez was traveling with his family and there a was a crazy road-rage maniac point a gun at his family in his car.

      I’d say that Mr. Jimenez should have pulled off the road and parked his car in a safe place and got out to put himself between armed aggressor and his family.

      Pull a gun on me once and my hand is on my gun.
      Do it twice and I will eliminate the threat.

      This is what Stand Your Ground Means.
      Mr. Jimenez would have been entirely within his right perforate the car of a man pointing a gun at him.

    • If someone if following me, I’ll call the police and drive to the nearest police station, giving appropriate details (unless immediate action is necessary). “Hey police, I’m bringing you a present.”

  5. “both men have concealed weapons permits”

    Holy crap! They actually found someone with a CCP committing a crime… and he didn’t even need it to legally have the gun with him (Florida allows non-permit holders to keep their guns in a car).

      • I can’t tell if you’re being serious. Take a stoner’s pot away, and about the most severe reaction I would expect would be “awwwwwwww maaaaaannnn”. Or maybe a befuddled look around, thinking he’d misplaced it, before getting distracted by a cartoon show, a day-old pizza slice, or a leaf in the wind.

      • Only because pot can be found in a car in about three seconds, whereas a body’s final report on toxicology results can take four to six weeks or more to come back.

        Given the facts currently reported, would you like to place a bet now on the outcome of that testing?

        • It is well known that any big-city (or FBI) CSI technician can perform any and all exotic and complicated tests on anything possible, and can obtain irrefutable results in just a few seconds; It’s also known fact that any big-city police agency can solve a major crime in 30 minutes, and a big-city DA can obtain a conviction (or at least a trial decision) in no more than 60 minutes (not counting commercial breaks).
          It is also fact that every crime scene has DNA, or a pubic hair, or a fibre of such distinct characteristics that it can be readily differentiated from any other known fibre instantly, with near absolute certainty.
          Further, every firearm in a big city is registered, and its precise rifling pattern and firing-pin or breech-face configuration precisely documented, so that an immediate and infallible identification can be made from a single cartridge case or bullet fragment. If a firearm is found at a crime scene, there are almost always great big juicy clear fingerprints on SOME part of it that can be promptly identified as belonging to the most unlikely suspect imaginable.
          Where have you BEEN?!

    • It takes more than just a little marijuana to overcome ‘roid rage.

      Unless it’s REALLY good weed.

  7. My brother and his best friend were out driving around in our home town when they made the mistake of turning around in the driveway of a nutcase. This guy ran out of his house waving a gun and proceeded to follow them. They headed to the local copshop with this lunatic tailgating them the whole way. They jumped out and ran inside while yelling for help. The cops dealt with said nutcase when he followed them through the door, fortunately he had enough sense to drop his gun when he was facing several officers pointing guns at him. Turns out he was in the police academy training to be a cop….that was a career ending choice for him.

      • [pruh-mis-kyoo-uh s]

        Synonyms
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        adjective
        1.
        characterized by or involving indiscriminate mingling or association, especially having sexual relations with a number of partners on a casual basis.
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        indiscriminate; without discrimination.
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        casual; irregular; haphazard.

  10. Having lived in Tampa for a long time (and successfully escaped from), this kind of thing stopped surprising me a long time ago. Good riddance to all of them.

    Anyhow. Back in the day, I felt safer in Ybor than around USF (and Busch Gardens)…. until they turned it into a mini-Bourbon St, and now it’s Gaybor on top of everything else. Still, it seems like all the road-rage always happens on the Fowler/Fletcher/Busch stretches…. until you hit the Nebraska/Florida ghetto corridors, where everyone knows everyone carries.

  11. Irresponsible judgmental journalism and those face down in the mainstream who are entertained by such bs fodder and are always prone to believe what they read. Too much work to actually seek the whole truth But hey, simple things amuse simple minds i guess…..
    Very interesting that no one sees this as potentially a swinging “d” cocktest. Possibly both parties carry fault?
    So far, the only thing childs did wrong was not hold himself to a higher standard. Something most are taught to do. Youth and indiscretion. Not saying it was right. He knew better and has some accountability it seems. All else is alleged. And it will possibly cost him. But why does this sum up the totality that is him? That is tampa?
    Because possbility of truth is nowhere near as interesting?
    What happened to presumption of innocence until proven guilty?

    • What higher standard can you hold yourself to when an a-hole aims a gun at you? Wait until he shoots? Maybe, more information will show that Jimenez provoked the incident. Until then, I can’t fault him except to suggest that he missed an opportunity to set Childs up for an unpleasant encounter with police.

    • Youth and indiscretion shouldn’t be an excuse when you are in possession of deadly weapons, both a firearm and a vehicle. Childs is just another case of DWS, Driving While Stupid.

    • I have no doubt Childs felt that he was disrespected, probably by being cut off in traffic, or by some other indiscretion done by Jimenez.
      This happens to me all the time. I do not choose to allow myself to become overcome with righteous indignation and make sure the perpetrator of that disrespect is somehow chastened by the threat of bodily harm, like Childs did.
      If it is discovered that this is what happened, it would not in any way absolve Childs. Self-control should have been learned by the time one is in college.

      • I agree with the self control statement. But between the ages of say 18-27, what man among us has not postured and spread tail feathers with another man? Perhaps we were just fortunate that it didnt escalate into something we couldnt recover from as it apparently has with these young men? Laws of nature. Again not saying he is right and yes he should have held himself to a higher standard. And no the weed possession damn sure doesnt help. Damn foolish actually. But the fact remains that they are still kids trying to become men. Without knowing the totality of the shituation, all we can do is speculate. But to pass judgment on either of these young men is where i personally draw the line. Let all the facts present themselves. Hopefully the officers involved did their due diligence in fact recovery but we all know how that can be at times. That is why there will be an opportunity for a trial etc. some of the comments on here are just irresponsible imo and borderline fear jealous and hate mongering. I admittedly use to play into the stereotype of the dumb jock just passed thru school and didnt respect what they did until my son become that “jock”. My opinion has now changed as i see first hand what he and his fellow athletes(male and female) go thru. Full load classwork and up at 0dark thirty with workouts missing most family events travel etc etc etc. it is a real commitment. Most of us dont get it bcuz we ve never lived it so it easy to just judge their walk. Yet we would not want our walk judged. Yes they chose that path and all it entails especially the higher degree of accountability and understanding that there are people who will capitalize on an oppty to exploit your situation for selfish gain(perhaps not the case here) but it doesnt change the fact that they are boys trying to become men and the learning curve is real effin short….. I’m just saying.
        Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.

        • Browski: Methinks you are trying awfully hard to find a way to excuse Childs.
          Displaying (brandishing) a gun in a non-self defense situation is nothing but an invitation to trouble of the serious kind. Being too immature to fully understand that a trial with possible jail time may be the least of the possible consequences is not an excuse. If you are going to display a deadly weapon in an act of bravado, anyone you display that weapon to doesn’t have to consider whether that weapon you’re threatening him with is fully understood by the victim of that threat; they are allowed to react as though that threat is very real, because it too often is.
          While it is true that Childs is probably a victim of his own immaturity, that’s certainly not the fault of the one he threatened. The fault lies squarely on Child’s own shoulders. It is he who made the threat, and he who reaped the consequences.
          I am sure some will (as you did) point out that his athletic pursuits led him to miss out on a lot of parental advice; whose fault is that? Probably, at least in part, its the fault of his parents, and I am sure they are suffering, too. But if you want to act like a man, you must accept the responsibility that goes with that choice. Yes, that’s harsh, but so is life.

          • Not at all, what i am saying. If it is found that he is wrong and is convicted then that is the price he pays. I am just merely highlighting some of the variables involved let alone familial dynamics or socioeconomic conditions. If there is any issue that i have albeit minor as i dont know any of you, is the apparent willingness that so many have to sit on high and look down low from our laptops. I just find it unfortunate that most are willing to judge the totality of a person based on one incident (unfortunate as it is). if it were to turn out that jiminez and his wife were lying I would feel the same way ie wait until it discovered that they were lying. I read an article that says childs actually had business in this complex and jiminez did not. So what is the truth? Cant rely on media spindoctoring to get an accurate picture nowadays if ever. That is why he will have his day in court. And if it isnfound that he is wrong then it is all on him. But the thought of brandishing a firearm while a family is in the car is reprehensible yes. But why wouldnt jiminez just turn around? Why not go another direction maybe phone police with tag report said gun? Bcuz of stand your ground laws? With fam in tow? I just dont think the picture clear enough to draw good conclusions…. i am merely rooting for the truth. For me its just way too easy to point at the obvious in this case. But maybe it is just that obvious. And if it is, then shame on childs. I prefer to see all of the facts. Ive actually been falsely accused in my youth. Agg battery on a leo. All lies. Didnt look good. Everyone said i was foolish to think i could overcome the apparent preponderance of evidence. Even stopped the trial to offer me a final plea bargain. I told if they were to convict me they would earn it. Took it all the way to trial and won overwhelmingly. Mouthy in my youth? Yes. Brash full of piss vinegar and testosterone? Yes. Criminal element? Absolutely not. Maybe that is also why i feel the way that I feel. Again not really in anyones side. I just wanna see how the chips fall.

          • Also, have you seen the picture of jiminez in the media? Is it me or is that a mugshot? Again, just doesnt all add up to me. Childs, no record. Jiminez, record? I could be wrong as i didnt investigate but it all doesnt seem to add up as easily as it is being presented in the media… but hey, maybe it does…..

        • Most sports teach respect(4 others & self),patience,quick thinking, & discipline. If mr child’s would have followed these simple fundamentals then he would of never been in this situation, these guys are supposed to be setting an example. I was a student athlete @ 17 yrs ago & was to scared(of coaches & family) to do anything like he did & we had random drug testing. Maybe this young man can file this as a life lesson & make a positive impact & contribution to society. Hopefully, he won’t have any lasting effects from the shooting.

  12. Jimenez? I’ve gotta ask was he shot with a Saturday Night Special?

    This football player doesn’t need to worry about getting kicked out of college ball, he just proved he could graduate to the NFL!

  13. place the letter from the referee’s jersey on his forehead.
    is he howling about something?

  14. I’m not sure why the 20 grams of weed is relevant to the story. But I’m glad the good guy acted appropriately in order to defend himself and those he cares about.

    • When you fill out a 4473 prior to purchasing a gun, you are questioned as to whether you use illegal drugs.

      • His story is easy. At the time I filled out the 4473, I had *never* used drugs! See? It’s all good.

    • If it goes to trial as an assault case, Childs’ defense lawyer will move to suppress any reference to the weed. Because lawyers know it would prejudice the jury as to the defendant’s character (or lack thereof).

      In other words, post smokers tend not to be paragons of virtue. Its presence in Childs’ vehicle is additional evidence of his general douchebaggery.

  15. Did Jimenez use a Jimenez 9 or Jimenez 380?

    Can’t believe nobody has commented on those cheap pieces of crap.

  16. IMO, the photo accompanying this article makes Mr. Childs look bad. This one shows he’s an attractive young man when he’s in dressier clothes.

    (-:

  18. He does not look like an attractive young man in the linked photo
    He looks like a thug who is not comfortable wearing a suit

    • Same here. I guess I should’ve added a /sarc on top of the old-fashioned smiley (-: emoticon. It was not my intention to be taken seriously.

  19. when are people going to realize exactly WHO and WHAT they are supporting by watching sports. you are supporting POS’s like Childs and Vicks. Immature, self absorbed, egotistical, MORONS!!!! and for some reason you all like to watch them run around in tights and touch each other.

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