BUFFALO, NY – He tried to execute his victim with a gunshot to the head after a youth football game, but when the gun didn’t fire, a football coach stepped in to stop him and he killed the coach instead.
In 2019, 20-year-old Jason L. Washington, Jr.was involved in a fight with other individuals at Emerson Park near Sycamore Street and Koons Avenue in the City of Buffalo. The incident occurred as a little league football game was ending at the park. The defendant attempted to fire a shot from an illegal weapon at the male victim’s head, but the gun did not fire.
“When a youth football coach attempted to break up the altercation and hit the defendant in the head with a football helmet, the defendant fired multiple shots at the coach,” Erie County Prosecutor John Flynn said. “The coach, 36-year-old Norzell “Nore” Aldridge of Cheektowaga, was hit in the side of his torso by gunfire. He died at the hospital. The other victim, a 20-year-old male, was injured in the shooting. He was taken by ambulance to ECMC where he was treated and released for a gunshot wound to his shoulder.”
A jury found Washington guilty of one count of Manslaughter in the First Degree (Class “B” violent felony), one count of Criminal Possession of a Weapon in the Second Degree (Class “C” violent felony) and one count of Assault in the Second Degree (Class “D” felony). He was acquitted of the other charges in the indictment against him. The jury rendered their decision after four hours of deliberation following a 3 ½ day trial in March 2022.