The shooting death of a 17-year-old Lewis and Clark High School football player has left his family ‘broken.’ They think it could’ve turned out differently

Two years ago, Kim Carroll lost her daughter to a rare and severe form of leukemia. On Wednesday, she lost her daughter’s son.

Carter Cochran was a 17-year-old football player and an aspiring firefighter when he was shot and killed by a Spokane Valley driver as Cochran experienced an apparent mental health crisis.

“How much do you want to take from me, God? How much?” Carroll pleaded during a phone call with The Spokesman-Review Monday. “I lost my daughter, my baby girl, and now my precious grandson. I am broken.”

Cochran was responsible, cared for others and had big dreams of fighting fires. The Lewis and Clark High School senior planned this summer to take fire science courses so he would be eligible to volunteer with the Moscow Fire Department, Carroll said. Cochran was also a devout Christian who attended church every Sunday and enjoyed conversations about faith.

He was a lineman for the LC football team, but spent the time off the field participating in track events like shot put and javelin. Cochran loved camping, playing sports and “chillin’ ” with friends, as he’d tell his grandmother. People often referred to him as a teddy bear due to his size: he was 6-foot-3 and muscular but had “a baby face” that everyone loved, Carroll said.

“He had great friends with great parents. He lived with us, his grandparents. We are nothing special, but we love him and supported him in all he did. The normal teen-aged things,” Carroll said. “He was a joy. He was a goofball, he was funny, he was loving. Parents would always tell me he was the most respectful child they’ve been around. He even had the garage code for a friend’s house to come stay anytime he wanted; he was that loved.”

On Wednesday, Cochran was staying at a friend’s house in Spokane Valley. It was spring break. But he told his grandparents to come pick him up.

“We were on the way to get him because we could tell something was wrong,” Carroll said. “He was saying he wanted to be with his mom.”

Cochran was the one who found his mother’s body two years ago. He called his grandmother in hysterics at the time, saying his mother was dead, and he knew because of “her eyes,” Carroll said. Though he appeared to have dealt with his mother’s death in a somewhat normal way, they tried to get him help. He seemed fine “on the outside” this year, Carroll said.

But that Wednesday evening, it seems like Cochran was “a kid in crisis,” Carroll said.

A news release from the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office said a juvenile – now identified as Cochran – was making statements of self-harm and stood in front of a car with three people inside, causing the driver to stop. Cochran “entered” the passenger side of the car, and the driver, who was armed, was able to get him to exit, the release said. While the sheriff’s office declined to say whether Cochran was also armed, Carroll said he wasn’t.

The “confrontation escalated, which led to the driver shooting the juvenile male,” the release said. Sheriff’s office spokesperson Cpl. Mark Gregory later elaborated to The Spokesman-Review that once Cochran got out of the passenger seat, the driver got out of the car and met Cochran around the other side.

Cochran was shot just before 8:10 p.m. in the area of 16th Avenue and South Union Road in Spokane Valley, according to the news release. He was pronounced dead at the scene. Cochran’s friend, who was with him at the time of his death, was uninjured.

The sheriff’s office has declined to release any more information about the incident “due to the ongoing investigation,” Gregory said. Nobody has been arrested.

Carroll has a hard time believing it. The teenage friend who was with Cochran when he died came over to her house last week, she said. He told her, through tears, that Cochran was already acting bizarre around other cars when they walked by a different car and spotted a man inside. He had a gun in his lap, Carroll said.

Seeing the gun, Cochran came back to the car, stuck his head inside and said he “wanted to go be with his mom,” she said.

When the man got out of the car, the teenager told Carroll he grabbed Cochran’s arm, begged the man to put the gun away and pleaded with him not to shoot.

“No one has told me what Carter did to make (the driver) think his life is in danger,” Carroll said. “No one has told me what Carter did to make (the driver) think he was going to hurt them. I wouldn’t get out of my car. I would expect people in that situation to just drive away.”

After Cochran was shot, a neighbor who witnessed the incident said Cochran then tried to run away from the shooter but collapsed in front of a nearby house. He died by homicide due to gunshot wounds, the Spokane County Medical Examiner disclosed Monday. The name of the driver has not been released.

“Everyone I talked to said, ‘Did you know?’ ” Carroll said through tears. “But on the outside, he was normal; there were no signs he was about to break down.”

According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, determining whether a certain behavior is a symptom of a mental health condition can be difficult. It can be even harder for younger people who are Black, like Cochran. Carroll said she is hoping his race did not play a factor in the driver’s decision to shoot him.

A 2019 report by a Congressional Black Caucus emergency task force shows suicide rates among Black children and teens are increasing faster than any other racial group. The report cites a Youth Risk Behavior Survey that found suicide attempts by Black youths rose by 73% from 1991 to 2017. Black teens have historically not been considered at a high suicide risk or as exhibiting suicidal behaviors, but current trends suggest the opposite, the report states.

Fortunately, the national alliance writes, the suicide crisis among Black youths is beginning to see the necessary level of attention.

During the days following Cochran’s death, parents of his friends immediately swept in for support and organized a GoFundMe. Counselors at Lewis and Clark High School are also available to assist students this week who are grieving.

“Carter had a soul that could brighten any room simply by walking into it. Even on someone’s darkest day, he had a way of turning it into something full of laughter and hope. He was the kind of person who made you laugh until your stomach hurt, whose presence alone brought comfort, and whose joy was truly contagious,” the GoFundMe post says. “He was not only full of light, but full of strength. Even while facing his own challenges, Carter never stopped showing up for the people he loved. His kindness, wisdom, and unwavering faith inspired everyone around him – whether they shared his beliefs or not. He loved deeply, and that love was felt by all who knew him.”

The parents also brought food and soda to Carroll’s house over the weekend to host 40 boys who knew and loved Cochran. They all gathered to mourn the loss of their friend and tell funny, heartfelt stories about the times they shared with him, Carroll said.

“The words you hear, you don’t hear ‘aggressive’ or ‘fight,’ ” Carroll said. “You hear ‘funny.’ You hear ‘joyful.’ You hear ‘a best friend who would do anything for anybody.’ ”