Thirty teams gathered Saturday night at Cesar Chavez Park for a soccer tournament held in honor of Efran Hernandez, the 24-year-old man shot and killed on May 9 inside a Phoenix Circle K store.
“It’s hard to play without him,” said Antonio Campos, who played on the same team as Hernandez in the Maya Chapin soccer league. The league was founded to steer young people away from drugs and violence.
“We have to be here to represent him,” Campos said.
Police said Hernandez was killed after 53-year-old Joel Carson entered the store, near 19th Avenue and Grant, and shot him in the back of the head. Investigators said eight others were held hostage and their lives were possibly spared because Carson’s gun malfunctioned.
