On the evening of October 27th, 2014, 17-year-old Jesus Maness found himself at Kinloch Park in Miami, Florida, immersed in a fast-paced basketball game with a group of friends. The sun was beginning to set, and the court buzzed with energy as the two teams battled it out. Jesus’s team was holding their own in the tight match when, mid-game, one of his teammates panicked under pressure and took a wild three-point shot. The ball missed everything — a complete airball — and soared over the chain-link fence that bordered the park.
Everyone groaned at once. They all knew what that meant — anything that went over that fence was essentially gone for good.
But then, unexpectedly, one of Jesus’s friends nudged him and said, “Why don’t you go get it?” Jesus hesitated. Ever since he was a kid, his parents had warned him never to climb that fence. Still, his friend pressed him again, turning it into a challenge. The rest of the group quickly joined in, egging him on, daring him to do it. Jesus felt trapped — he knew it was a bad idea, but he didn’t want to look scared in front of his peers.
Thinking, “What’s the worst that could happen?” he reluctantly agreed.
Jesus walked over to the fence, which stood about seven feet high and was topped with barbed wire. He looked back at his friends, who were cheering him on with big smiles. Taking a deep breath, he climbed to the top, carefully maneuvered over the barbed wire, and dropped down on the other side. The landing was rough, but he quickly shook it off, got to his feet, and spotted the basketball nearby. With a grin, he picked it up and tossed it back over the fence to his friends, who celebrated his “victory.”
But then something caught Jesus’s eye — another basketball, lying just beyond a second fence a few feet away. This second barrier looked just like the first: tall, with more barbed wire and warning signs. Everyone in the neighborhood knew about these two fences. They were forbidden territory. His parents had repeatedly told him growing up: Don’t ever go past those fences.
But Jesus had already broken the first rule. The second fence didn’t seem much worse.
Without alerting his friends, he made his way to the second fence. Just like before, he climbed up, navigated the barbed wire carefully, and dropped down.
This time, though, something went horribly wrong.
The moment Jesus landed inside that second enclosure, chaos erupted on the court. His friends began screaming and running around in panic. One of them quickly called 911. First responders arrived within minutes and found the teens frantic, all pointing toward the fenced-off area.
What they saw was grim. There was nothing they could do to help.
The reason those fences were strictly off-limits — and the reason Jesus’s family had warned him all his life — was because inside that second area was a high-voltage electrical substation. Large warning signs plastered on both fences clearly stated the danger: No Trespassing. High Voltage. Fatalities May Occur.
But Jesus hadn’t seen — or chose to ignore — those signs. When he landed inside that area, he came down directly on a live electrical wire. Instantly, 500,000 volts of electricity surged through his body. For comparison, the average lightning bolt carries about 300,000 volts. Jesus had just been hit by the equivalent of nearly two lightning strikes — not once, but repeatedly.
He died almost immediately.