A family is mourning the loss of their teen son after he was reportedly attacked by 15 people outside of his high school.
On November 1, multiple outlets reported on a fight that occurred across the street from Rancho High School in Las Vegas, Nevada. The brawl allegedly involved 15 students, and, at the time, 17-year-old Jonathan Lewis Jr. remained in critical condition at the hospital. According to what his father, Jonathan Lewis Sr. (pictured above, left), wrote on the teen’s GoFundMe campaign, his son’s girlfriend told him the fight broke out when the teen tried to stand up for his “smaller friend.” So sad.
“We have been given a statement from our son’s girlfriend that what occurred was that one of his smaller friends had something stolen by this group of 15 and they threw the small boy in the trash can and our son confronted them and he was attacked by them. He’s a courageous young man.”
The Las Vegas Review Journal said it was around 2 p.m. when Lewis Jr. was found near the intersection of Searles Avenue and North 21st Street before he was rushed to the hospital. Greg Bostick, an eyewitness to the incident spoke to 8 News Now Las Vegas and described how he saw the victim getting “chest compressions” at the scene:
“I saw somebody getting chest compressions, CPR. Police came, then the ambulance, and a fire truck. They kinda dealt with it.”
So awful…
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Sadly, after six days in the hospital, the father updated the campaign and said Jonathan Jr. ultimately succumbed to his injuries:
“today at 11:26 am my son was pronounced dead he will always be so loved as his dad I’ll forever hold him in my heart, shine even brighter, love even more and work all my life to bring peace into this world.”
Heartbreaking. Just absolutely heartbreaking.
He spoke to LVRJ about the family’s reaction to their son’s passing, admitting they’re all “in shock” about it. He claimed there were originally two attackers who jumped on his son, but they “weren’t able to hurt him enough, and they all attacked him at once.”
Jonathan Sr. described his son in his GFM campaign as: “an aspiring artist, devoted big brother, and a fierce protector of love ones,” saying:
“We are so grateful for all the love and community support that has poured in for our son and hope that the world will focus on all that love and compassion as a beacon of hope for human relations and place recognition upon how much stronger the love and the spirit of community is than the dark moments of violence.”
The grief-stricken parent also went on to tell KLAS-TV he hopes the teen’s tragic death will start a conversation about ongoing violence amongst young residents of Las Vegas:
“I hope there’s a way that can find forgiveness in their heart and find a way to be able to come to terms with what they’ve done. I think there’s just a failure of all of humanity to recognize that we need to be teaching our youth how to coexist.”
Devastating. If you’d like to donate to the family, you can do so by clicking HERE.
The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department have yet to publicly identify Jonathan Jr. as the victim of this alleged brawl, nor have they made any arrests. Everything is still under investigation at this time, but we hope this family gets the justice they deserve. We can’t imagine the pain they’re going through right now.
R.I.P.
You can watch the news report for yourself (below), but be warned, footage from the fight is included:
[Image via GoFundMe]
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