Suspect, victim in first Fort Myers homicide in 2022 played football, seen as 'good kids'

They played high school football and were good kids, loved by friends and family.

One is dead; the other sits in jail accused in the killing.

Di'mari Jackson, 16, of Fort Myers, was talking to a girl he knew behind a duplex at Southward Village on Sunday night when shots rang out. He told his friend to run and then collapsed from a gunshot wound.

Within 48 hours, Fort Myers Police arrested Syncere Trice, 19.

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This past football season, Jackson played for the Fort Myers High School Green Wave.

"He did play freshman football," Coach Sam Sirianni said, describing Jackson as a nice kid, polite and friendly.

Sirianni said Jackson was just getting into Green Wave football.

"We hadn't done springs, so he really had done nothing yet in our football program beyond ninth grade," he said.

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He said there was no chance Jackson would have played against Trice, who was a junior and played football for South Fort Myers.

"He would have started with us this spring. He was just a ninth-grader. A neat kid. It's a sad situation," Sirianni said. "Real tragic situation. He was a good kid. Laid back. Sadly in the wrong place at the wrong time."

Sirianni said he had Jackson in a class this semester.

"I got to know him a bit better. It's a sad situation," the coach said.

Jackson's brother, Derek Seawright, 22, said his younger brother, another older brother, and a cousin, all went to church Sunday and all were baptized.

Seawright said Jackson rarely went to church.

"When he finally did, he got baptized," he said. "Before he got baptized he came to see me because I'm his big brother. It's pretty hard. I'm happy he got baptized. But this really is random."

Pastor Wayne Sloss confirmed the baptism at The Rock Church of Fort Myers saying it was Jackson's first time at the church and he was one of eight people baptized.

"He came down to the call for salvation," Sloss said. "He felt that call."

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Seawright said his brother liked dancing and rapped a little. But he absolutely loved to fish.

"Everywhere he could fish, he fished," he said. "He wanted to be a bass pro. I told him he really could do that."

And he wanted to play football, Seawright said.

"He just got his jersey, the number '5'" he said.

The swiftness of Jackson's death stuns Seaworth.

"It was just so sudden," he said. "It shouldn't have happened. It caught everyone by surprise."

He said he started getting calls almost immediately Sunday night, and people were in disbelief.

"They kept saying 'it's not true'," he said. "When they found out it was, everyone just lost it."

Seaworth said funeral services for his brother are not finalized, but planned for May 7.

The suspect

Trice, too, was an athlete, playing football for the South Fort Myers Wolfpack as well as running track.

In September, Trice scored a 38-yard touchdown in a 35-22 South Fort Myers football win over Ida Baker. In October, the junior wide receiver snapped up a fumble and collared an interception in a 28-18 win over East Lee, and in November, he scored a touchdown in a 63-0 win over Estero.

On Wednesday, Trice, 19, remained behind bars in Lee County Jail on no bond and homicide charges hanging over him.

At his first appearance hearing Trice, also known as "Chulo", was declared indigent, appointed a public defender for his May 31 arraignment and given a list of people with whom he was to have no contact.

South Fort Myers High School football coach Willis May said Trice, known as "Papi" by teammates, was a good kid as well.

"If you're going to ask me about Papi," Mays said, "the only thing I can tell you is he's a good kid."

Mays said he really didn't want to talk about Trice.

"I love him, he's mine and he's a good kid," the Wolfpack coach said. "And if you ask anyone in the school how they feel about him, they'll say they think he's great."

Trice's route from the high school gridiron to county jail passed through Southward Village Sunday and, according to reports from Fort Myers police, was prompted by an argument between two females, one of them Trice's sister.

Police report

A police report on the fatal shooting Sunday said officers responded to an electronic alert of nine shots fired near Edison Street at Southward Village, a low-income development operated by the Housing Authority City of Fort Myers.

Multiple 911 calls before and after reported a fight, the gunshots, a gunshot victim, and the involvement of a gray van.

Responding officers were directed to a porch at a Willard Street address inside the development where they found the wounded Jackson. The teen was taken to Lee Memorial Hospital, where he died.

The police report quoted witnesses and others saying the Sunday night incident began when three females in a gray van began yelling at several teens and others playing in a field between Franklin Street and Franklin Court at Southward.

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Police said several of those involved thought the van, which drove speedily over the grassy field, was trying to run them over as it kept turning to follow them.

The report said, one of the van occupants, identified as Trice's 17-year-old sister, got out with a can of Mace and tried spraying it at a 14-year-old girl. They then fought.

While the police report identifies the witnesses, the News-Press does not name minors involved in criminal investigations.

The 14-year-old told police that two of the van occupants, including Trice's sister, had been involved in a previous altercation with them in February. One of those being chased, a teen male, told police the girls in the van sporadically harassed him and his family.

The fight was broken up by the mother of the 14-year-old, who took her home.

The police report said while at their home, the mother and the teen heard their rear window shatter and then gunshots.

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The police report said witnesses heard Trice's sister tell one of the other females involved to get her brother and then heard the gunshots shortly thereafter.

Multiple witnesses identified Trice as the shooter or said they saw him fire a handgun, including the 14-year-old teen involved in the fight. She said Trice rode her school bus to South Fort Myers High School.

Police found four 9mm shell casings in the area where witnesses saw Trice shooting. Trice denied having a weapon or shooting one.

The fatal wounding of Jackson, the police report said, happened as he placed his body in front of a 16-year-old girl he had been talking to and yelled at her to run.

Jackson collapsed and she saw he had been wounded.

The girl told police she and Jackson had been talking behind one of the duplexes on Willard when they saw a girl smash a window with a rock and then saw a man exit the duplex and chase her off.

The police report said the teen told investigators the girl being chased screamed a boy's name. She said she then saw a male with thin dreadlock-style hair and wearing only black basketball shorts fire several rounds in her and Jackson's direction.

She also told police she had seen the girl who broke the window and the male in black basketball shorts walking together minutes before the shooting. They then separated, with the male going to the site where police found the shell casings.

The girl placed the shooter where police said Trice was standing and Trice told them he was wearing only black basketball shorts. Police said Trice's sister later confirmed she was the girl who broke the window.

Connect with breaking news reporter Michael Braun: MichaelBraunNP (Facebook), @MichaelBraunNP (Twitter) or mbraun@news-press.com.

This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: Di' Mari Jackson loved football, baptized hours before fatal shooting