OPA-LOCKA, Fla. — One by one, they came to shed tears, share memories and say goodbye.

Several hundred people gathered Monday inside New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Opa-locka to celebrate the life of Jasper Howard, the former Miami Edison football and track star fatally stabbed last week outside a party at the University of Connecticut.
“He was the ultimate son, the ultimate brother, the ultimate teammate and the ultimate friend,” University of Connecticut coach Randy Edsall said. “And he was going to be the ultimate husband.”
Howard’s mother, Joangela Howard, his father Alex Moore, two younger sisters and 18-year-old girlfriend Daneisha Freeman, expecting a baby, sat near his dark-blue coffin as others spoke about him.
Next to the family was the University of Connecticut football team, which arrived in four large buses. The players wore blue and white ribbons with the initials JH and number 6 pinned to their suit jackets.
Linebacker Kijuan Dabney, Howard’s first college roommate, read a poem written by the team, called UConn’s Angel.
It is unclear who killed Howard and what caused the altercation that led to his death. Though Connecticut police spent the weekend searching storm drains and a lake near where Howard was stabbed, no one has been charged with his murder.
What is clear is that the 20-year-old who was on pace to graduate with a sociology degree and aspired to reach the NFL and take care of his family is now gone.
“Auntie Pooh, Jazz was one step away from his dream,” Florida International cornerback Anthony Gaitor told Howard’s mother during an emotional speech. “I promise you, I’m going to go get it for him, for all of us.”
Howard, a junior, had the best game of his career against Louisville on the afternoon before his death. Not long afterward, family and friends began text messaging him when his highlights appeared on ESPN’s “SportsCenter.” Hours later, Howard was stabbed in the stomach. He bled to death in the arms of two teammates.
Monday, Howard was dressed in a light-blue suit with blue-and-gray football gloves like the ones he wore on the field for the Huskies. When his coffin was closed, the tears began to flow.
“I remember the first time I saw Jazz, he had his dreads hanging, shorts and sandals on with no socks,” Huskies receiver Kashif Moore said. “He liked to make people laugh. He had a good strong heart. I think he got that from his mother.
“Everyone knew Jazz had a heart of a lion. And if they didn’t know, he’d show them. He’d never back down from a challenge. That’s how Jazz was. It could be a seven-foot receiver. He wouldn’t back down. Jazz had a lot of swag.”
Howard used to tell his teammates he was going to make a name for himself.
The boy who grew up avoiding trouble on the tough streets of Little Haiti was an All-Dade first-team selection at cornerback and the state runner-up in the long jump his senior year. He was the Most Valuable Player in the Dade-Broward football all-star game in 2006. He chose to play football at UConn — in seemingly safe Storrs, Conn. — over North Carolina.
Part of his legacy, sadly, is being the fourth football player from Miami-Dade killed in the last three years.
Only the assailants of former Hurricane and Gulliver Prep star Sean Taylor, shot by robbers in his home in December 2007, have been charged.
Those responsible for the death of 17-year-old Booker T. Washington linebacker Anthony Smith, shot at a party in Overtown in July, and the murder of former Miami Hurricane and Miami Central grad Bryan Pata, also remain at large.
“Sometimes people think this can’t happen to college football players. But this just shows you it can and we have to appreciate life,” University of Miami cornerback Brandon Harris said.
“Knowing the type of person Jazz was — motivated to take care of his family — it’s sad. He left Miami for change, and this happened. It definitely shows this can happen anywhere — not just Miami.”
Howard, who grew up playing at Liberty City Optimist, had a wide range of friends — many of them football players who spoke at the funeral. His former high school coach, Corey Bell, now the director of football operations at the University of Miami, was among the more than dozen speakers who stepped up to the podium.
“I told him I was proud of him, that I loved him,” Bell said of his private moment with Howard at Sunday’s viewing. “One thing about Jazz, he always stayed focused, humble and hungry — all the things you tell them as you coach them. You wonder if they listen. But you know he did.”
Edsall, who had to call Howard’s mother to tell her of the tragedy, remembered how Howard came to him as a freshman worried about his family back home. He said Howard pleaded with him about returning home “to take care of them.” But Edsall said he convinced him that being the first person in his family to graduate from college would be the best way to do it.
“It’s unfortunate his daughter won’t be able to know him,” Moore said. “But we’ll have a lot of stories to tell her. She’ll have 105 uncles — I promise you that. We’ll all miss Jazz.”