A teenage date night turned into a tragedy when a Georgia high school football star was fatally shot in a restaurant parking lot.
“I run over to Elijah, and he’s on the ground, and I go right over to him, and he mouths to me — the last word he said to me was ‘help,'” victim Elijah DeWitt’s longtime girlfriend, Bailey Reidling, toldFox News Digital.
A standout senior wide receiver on the Jefferson High School football team, DeWitt and Reidling started dating five years ago, Fox News Digital reports.
On Oct. 5, the longtime couple went to Dave & Busters at the Sugarloaf Mills Mall in Lawrenceville, where they met up with friends to play games at the eatery’s arcade and grab dinner, Reidling told Fox News Digital.
Elijiah Dewitt.Facebook
When they were ready to order food, Reidling said DeWitt kissed her on the forehead and gave her his credit card, she told the outlet.
She went to the bathroom first and when she came out, she said her boyfriend was nowhere in sight.
When she stepped outside to look for him, she saw DeWitt lying on the pavement.
“Everything’s red,” she told Fox News Digital.
Panicked, she ran over to him.
Police arrived shortly after 8:15 p.m. and found DeWitt “deceased on the ground with several gunshot wounds,” the Gwinnett Police Department said in a statement.
“His life just came completely to a screeching halt in seconds,” his mother Dawn Dewitt toldFox 5 Atlanta.
On Friday, the Gwinnett Police Department announced that two suspects — Kemare Bryan, 18, of Lawrenceville, and Chandler Richardson, 19, of Lawrenceville — were located in South Carolina and were arrested and charged in connection with DeWitt’s death.
Chandler Richardson, Kemare Bryan.Gwinnett County Police (2)
On Tuesday, they were brought back to Georgia where they were booked into the Gwinnett County Jail.
They are both charged with with felony murder, malice murder, aggravated assault, and possession of a firearm during the commission of certain felonies in connection with the murder of Elijah Dewitt, police said in the statement.
It is unclear whether they have retained attorneys who can speak on their behalf.
The Gwinnett Police said in an update that “detectives have reason to believe that this was not a random encounter and that some of the parties involved in the incident were known to each other.”
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Elijah Would Forgive Them
DeWitt’s father, Craig DeWitt, said he has forgiven his son’s killers.
“Forgiveness is for the forgiver,” he told Fox 5. “We don’t want the hate in this household.”
Reidling also said she forgives the suspects: “Elijah would forgive them,” she told Fox News Digital. “There’s something in my heart telling me to. I haven’t got any hatred towards them. Anger? Yes.”
The teen’s mother called her son a kind soul, saying, “I want him to be remembered as a fierce competitor with a very large heart,” Fox 5 Atlanta reports.
The suspects are scheduled to appear in court just hours before DeWitt’s funeral Wednesday.
DeWitt’s aunt, Lauren DeWitt, thanked well-wishers on Facebook and noted that aGoFundMe has been set up to help the family.
“Even though we can’t respond to everyone just yet, we feel the love and it’s helping. It hits harder each day as we miss him more and more.”
source: people.com
