A man arrested Thursday in St. Johns County in connection with a shooting last fall at a football stadium in Alabama had previous ties to Northeast Florida, News4JAX has learned.
After reporting that Hezekiah Belfon, 20, was taken into custody in the St. Augustine area, News4JAX received a tip that he used to be a quarterback at First Coast High School. By Friday afternoon, News4JAX was able to confirm that he played for First Coast High for one season.
First Coast High officials say they are not allowed to comment on Belfon because he’s a suspect in an ongoing criminal investigation. But according to sources within the school who knew Belfon, he moved to Florida in 2019 and attended First Coast High during the fall semester when he played backup quarterback for the Buccaneers. Sources say he moved back to Alabama the following semester. They also say he seemed like a good kid.
Belfon was booked shortly before 11:30 a.m. Thursday into the St. Johns County Jail, according to jail records.
He is a suspect in a shooting that happened Oct. 15 at Ladd-Peebles Stadium in Mobile, Alabama -- where thousands were gathered at a high school football game, according to the Mobile Police Department.
Police said five people -- two adults and three teenagers -- suffered gunshot wounds.
Shortly after the shooting, police said that a 19-year-old was arrested on five counts of attempted murder, but that they were still looking for Belfon, who has five warrants charging him with attempted murder.
Police later said a 17-year-old was also arrested in connection with the shooting and charged as an adult with five counts of attempted murder.
Mobile Police Chief Paul Prine spoke at a news conference Thursday afternoon. He said Belfon had been on the run for five months and was considered armed and dangerous. The Police Department said it even put Belfon on its most wanted list because it felt he was a threat to public safety. But Prine said Belfon’s capture in Florida is giving the Police Department a sigh of relief.
“It’s a huge win for the Police Department and certainly for the community,” Prine said. “He was a threat to the community, and although we did not catch him here in Mobile, if he was a threat here, he was certainly a threat to the community he was at.”
The process has already begun to have Belfon extradited back to Alabama.