Watch CBS News

Family Mourns Star Football Player Killed At Ontario Restaurant & Bar

PERRIS (CBSLA) — Loved ones are mourning a star football player fatally shot over the weekend at a restaurant and bar in Ontario while he was home from college.

Ahasuerus Woods was just 19 and had just finished his first football season on scholarship at Missouri Valley College.

A small, candlelit memorial for the young man, affectionately known as "Woody," remained behind Aria Kabob and Bar Thursday. Police say it Woods was murdered there on Saturday night.

Marrsaa Woods told CBS2/KCAL9 her brother was funny and sweet — a star athlete at Orange Vista  High School in Perris who just graduated last May and was the first at his school to earn a scholarship to play college football in Missouri. Her brother was at the restaurant with a friend for a performance when someone started shooting.

"My family is completely torn. They took our star. Our brother. Our provider. Someone that we really cared about. They just took him from us," she said.

Marrsaa says her younger brother had never been in trouble. That's why her family feels he may have been an unintended target.

"They way he was lost, it hurts me because I know he wasn't that type of kid," she said.

Their mother, Lawanna Woods, says her son was feeling a little homesick and was on an extended trip home for the holidays visiting his siblings and his high school sweetheart, who he wanted to marry.

"This right here, this hurts. And it's real. And it's personal," she said.

Police say detectives are looking at surveillance footage in their search for a suspect.

"I know that the justice my mom wants for her son, she will get," Marrsaa said.

The suspect may also face attempted murder charges for two survivors who were also shot inside the same restaurant that night.

Anyone with information is urged to call the Ontario Police Department.

View CBS News In
CBS News App Open
Chrome Safari Continue
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.