Allen Merrick, a freshman linebacker at the University of Alabama at Birmingham was killed in a gun accident today in Gadsden, Alabama.  Little information is available other than a Gadsden police statement that the shooting was accidental.  Merrick was just 19.

Merrick was a standout athlete at Gadsden High School. He played in the Alabama-Mississippi All-Star game and was named Gadsden City’s Defensive Player of the Year.

 The UAB coach, Bill Clark, said, “”[p]lease pray for the family of Allen Merrick, a young man who joined our UAB Football Family this season.”

According to Gadsden School Superintendent Tony Reddick, “Merrick was home for a doctor’s appointment, and was with friends when ‘something happened.’” He added, “[f]rom what I understand, several lives have been devastated by this incident.”

The incident echoes the gun accident that killed star basketball player Ashley James in March of this year.

Source:

Donna Thornton, “GCHS Star/UAB Player Merrick Dies from Gunshot Wound,”  The Gadsden Times (August 14, 2020).