Mother Of Millington Football Player Speaks About Son’s Death
(Millington, TN) Thirty-year old Tameka Smith told News Channel 3 she was at home waiting for her son Tuesday night, when she got a call from one of her son’s friends, “They say they were running a play, like they do at practice, and he got hit hard.”
Smith said someone from the school came to pick her up and take her to Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital.
She was hoping her 15-year-old son Dana Payne only had a broken arm or leg.
“I realized it was serious when they got him off the ambulance and they was still pumping as they were walking,” said Smith. “When she came and told me he’s not breathing, they got a tube in him and then they told me his heart is not beating.”
Payne was pronounced dead at Le Bonheur.
Smith told us Wednesday she was proud of her son.
She said he loved his younger brothers and was passionate about football where he played wide receiver and running back, “I’m glad that he died doing what he wanted to do and not in these streets, with the gang members and they killing and all that. He died very good.”
Students are holding a vigil for Payne tonight at 6:45 at the Millington Central High School Gym.
