Las Vegas Metropolitan Police officers responded to a battery call near Rancho High School on Nov. 1.
KVVU-TV reported that police found a student who was “battered and bleeding from the head.” The teen was rushed to a local hospital in critical condition and later placed on life support. However, the teen died last Tuesday at University Medical Center, according to the boy’s father.
Jonathan Lewis Sr. said his 17-year-old son – Jonathan Lewis Jr. – died after being thrashed by 15 people.
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Lewis Sr. said he believes the deadly onslaught began after “Jonathan stood up for one of his smaller friends,” according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
“A couple (of people) attacked him, and they weren’t able to hurt him enough, and they all attacked him at once,” the dad stated.
Fox News reported that the Las Vegas Metro Police Department’s homicide unit is investigating the case. However, no arrests have been made thus far.
According to KLAS-TV, “Lewis also said the family was told by investigators they plan to charge several students involved in that fight with murder.”
The father said, “We’re all just trying to process this. The whole family is in shock.”
The father told the outlet, “I think there’s just a failure of all of humanity to recognize that we need to be teaching our youth how to coexist.”
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“Empathy and love are great strength and cowardly violence is pathetic,” the dad added. “A true warrior would never cowardly beat one person just because the two or three members of the group couldn’t beat the one warrior, a true warrior would let the others learn and grow.”
The teen’s father said his family denounces violence “as a means to sociological conflict.” He said the family believes that people being caring, respectful, compassionate, and caring are the “great strength of community and emphasize that those are the values that the warriors of our family teach.”
Lewis Sr. remembered his son as a “loving, giving, kind, fierce young man who loved community and caring for others.”
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The father revealed, “I hope there’s a way that I can find forgiveness in their heart and find a way to be able to come to terms with what they’ve done. I just love my children with all my heart, and it’s just unimaginable that we could ever come to this point.”
(WARNING: Graphic video)