Jahmari Rice was 15 and had been a student at the South Education Center in Richfield for only a week when a schoolyard dispute turned deadly. On February 1, 2022, an argument inside the school moved into the parking lot around lunchtime. Witnesses and court filings say the fight involved Jahmari and two other students on one side and 18-year-old Fernando Valdez-Alvarez and 19-year-old Alfredo Rosario Solis on the other.

According to accounts, the confrontation escalated after one of Jahmari’s group punched Solis. Valdez-Alvarez then retrieved a handgun from a vehicle and opened fire, striking Jahmari in the chest. Jahmari was found on the sidewalk outside the school and taken to Hennepin Healthcare, where he was pronounced dead. Two other students were wounded but survived. Valdez-Alvarez and Solis fled in an SUV and were arrested later that day; a handgun was recovered during a subsequent search.

The legal process was under way following the arrests. If anyone has information about Jahmari, the parking lot incident, or what led up to it, please share what is known.