The grieving father in Nevada, USA, has written and praised his 17-year-old son’s “champion heart” and condemned the violence after his son Jonathan was beaten to death by a gang of bullies outside his school, reports The Guardian.
Jonathan Lewis died in a Las Vegas hospital last Tuesday, a week after he was attacked by 15 people at Rancho high school.
Witnesses describe how the teenager was pushed into a fence. He is said to have been repeatedly beaten when he stood up for a younger friend who was thrown into a garbage can.
“Jonathan was a loving, giving, kind and feisty young man who loved the community and caring for others,” Jonathan’s father writes on a page where he is raising money to pay for his late son’s hospital bills.
No arrests
The police received a call about a mass brawl near the school on the afternoon of November 1. At the scene, the police found Jonathan with head bleeding and performed CPR on the spot before he was taken to the hospital.
Footage posted on social media shows Jonathan standing up to a youth, and then more than a dozen people jumping in and knocking Jonathan to the ground.
Las Vegas police are investigating the incident, a spokesperson confirmed Monday, without elaborating.
The police have not yet arrested anyone for the crime.
Want to see action against the violence
According to Jonathan’s father, Jonathan wanted to join the US military and he had also prepared to come and live with his father in Austin, Texas.
He now hopes his son’s death can be a trigger to crack down on the rising tide of youth violence in Las Vegas and among youth across the country.
“I think there is a failure of all humanity to realize that we have to teach our youth how to coexist,” he told a Las Vegas TV station 8NewsNow .