April 08, 2025 - 3:35 PM
HUMBOLDT, Tenn. (AP) — A Tennessee man has been sentenced to 76 years in prison for killing two men and wounding a third in a shooting at a high school basketball game more than three years ago.
Jadon Hardiman, 21, was sentenced Monday after he was convicted in November of charges including second-degree murder, attempted murder, aggravated assault and weapons offenses, Gibson County district attorney Frederick Agee said in a statement.
Hardiman, then 18, attended a basketball game between Humboldt and North Side high schools on Nov. 30, 2021.
He entered the gymnasium’s crowded concession area and pulled a semi-automatic .40 caliber handgun, prosecutors said. He fired three shots at Justin Pankey, a 21-year-old former Humboldt basketball player.
Pankey was hit one time and died within seconds, Agee said. A second bullet hit Xavier Clifton, a former North Side student and basketball player, who was standing in the concession line. Clifton was shot in the neck and paralyzed. He died in March 2022.
A third shot struck another man in the back of the head. He survived. Video footage showed people fleeing into the gym, into bathrooms, and other areas of the school.
News from © The Associated Press, 2025