JACKSON, Miss. (WJTV) – Jackson police are investigating the shooting death of a 14-year-old Northwest Rankin Middle School student.

Police said Cameron Horne Crook was shot and killed in the 3500 block of Ridgecrest Drive on Monday, March 25. He was shot multiple times.

Neighbors said the community is losing children to crime and gun violence and something must be done.

“It’s still a baby. I mean, we never know what he could have turned out to be. He could have been the next Einstein and the next Michael Jordan. He could have been, you know, another thing. But, you know, it’s sad, very sad. And I hate to see that kind of stuff,” said Willie Cole, a Jackson resident.

“The youth is our future. So, we got to come up with some different ways of being able to reach out to them. I know when I was growing up, we used to have kind of like a teen summit at Jackson State, and we will go there on weekends. We’ll go in summer time, and it was just something extra in the community for us to be a part of. So, we’ve got to come up with, you know, new ways and ideas to get the attention of our young people,” said Kalish Taylor, a Jackson resident.

Anyone with information about the fatal shooting can contact the Jackson Police Department (JPD) at 601-960-1234 or Crime Stoppers at 601-355-TIPS (8477).