After her son’s friend was shot dead in a robbery attempt, Lisa McNair wanted to send the teen to high school in South Carolina, where his paternal grandmother lives.
Less than two months into his freshman year, the junior varsity quarterback and linebacker for the Knights was stabbed aboard a Metro train. He died the day after the Friday afternoon assault, and police have charged a 15-year-old girl with murder.
Now his mother, who was so afraid of violence that she wouldn’t let Jaquar or any of her other children out alone, even to trick or treat for Halloween or for fireworks on the Mall, wonders what else she could have done to protect the youngest of her 10 children.
McNair, 46, worried she had been “too overprotective” and then lamented she hadn’t been more forceful in sending her son away, “so he wouldn’t be in this type of violence.”
Her mother, Lilian Nicholas, 64, told her daughter she should have no regrets: “You were just trying to save your child from this world.”
A houseful of relatives gathered at the McNair home in Anacostia on Monday, where they watched a video of Jaquar dancing at his middle school prom, read texts about Jaquar from grieving friends and planned a vigil with black balloons.
Amid the chatter, a mother torn over a terrible loss turned to her own mother, who tried to console her.
“You did nothing wrong, baby,” Nicholas told her. “You were a good mother.”
Jaquar was stabbed aboard an Orange Line train as it approached the Capitol South Metro station at about 12:40 p.m. on Friday. It was a half-day for his charter school, and his mother believes he had gone to a Chick-fil-A restaurant with teammates and was returning home when attacked. He stumbled out of the train car and collapsed at the fare gates.
He died Saturday at a hospital, the 10th person between the ages of 11 and 17 killed in the District this year. His death came during a week-long surge of violence that has worried city leaders. Police quickly detained and charged a 15-year-old girl with first-degree murder, but because she is a juvenile, her name, and many details of the killing, remain shrouded.
Jaquar’s mother and other relatives said the suspect attended school with Jaquar. Family members said school officials told them she had been in trouble in the past for bringing a knife to school, and they’re hearing from others that she targeted him, “but nobody knows why.” McNair said her son was not friends with the girl but she might have accompanied one of his teammates on the Metro.
In a statement, school officials called the stabbing “heartbreaking” but said they could not publicly address the family’s concerns because it involves minors.
“I’m still trying to find answers,” said McNair, who wants to see the young suspect tried in adult court. “I just want to know why.”
Relatives described Jaquar as a shy teenager — his mother called him “ice” — who opened up to his siblings but otherwise was private. They said he was respectful, mesmerizing everyone with his radiant smile. His mother gave him spending money every day, but he usually saved it or gave it away to a friend in need. He hung out with his clique of football players, socializing with them and sharing a table in the school lunchroom.
“All he wanted to do was play football and be a star,” McNair said, noting her son’s piles of trophies from the gridiron and track. Friends and relatives said he played quarterback; the team roster also lists him as running back and linebacker.
Jaquar came from a family that likes to travel, and he’d been on cruises that took him to the Cayman Islands and the Bahamas and traveled to Jamaica and Cancun, Mexico, among other places. He visited New York City and recently returned from Miami. The extended family spends Thanksgiving in Deep Creek, in Western Maryland, where there’s a table big enough for the group, and Jaquar would settle into the hot tub. They were planning another cruise for his 16th birthday in February.
“I just never wanted him to stay in D.C. and just not live his life,” McNair said, “or not know nothing about the rest of the world.”
McNair worried more about her son traveling about the District. After his friend, 14-year-old Steve Slaughter, a student at Friendship, was fatally shot in January 2018, a few blocks from Jaquar’s house, McNair’s fears intensified. She and her husband, Pete McNair, began to think about sending Jaquar to South Carolina.
“He had a life ahead of him,” said his grandmother, Nicholas, “and it’s been ripped away.”