A 17-year-old Las Vegas student succumbed on Tuesday to injuries he sustained during a massive assault by a gang of attackers two weeks prior.
As reported by Fox News, the victim was Jonathan Lewis, a White student at Rancho High School. The attack took place just outside the high school, with video captured at the scene showing that all of the attackers were black.
The victim’s father, also named Jonathan Lewis, said that his son had been planning to move to Austin, Texas to live with his father; at the time of his death, he was living in Vegas with his mother. The younger Lewis was put on life support for the two weeks following the attack, but ultimately died of his injuries.
Lewis’ father seemed to attribute his son’s death to teenage naivety, saying that “children don’t even know what they’re doing half the time.” He also called it “unimaginable” that a fight among teens “could ever come to this point.”
“I hope there’s a way they can find forgiveness in their heart and find a way to be able to come to terms with what they’ve done,” he continued, referring to the mob of attackers.
Lewis added that his family has been informed by investigators that several of the students involved will most likely be charged with murder. The case is currently being investigated by the Las Vegas Metro Police Department’s homicide.
The incident marks the second major occurrence of race-based violence committed against White victims by black perpetrators in the Las Vegas area. Back in August, two teens – a black teen and a Hispanic teen – filmed themselves speeding through a residential street, where they deliberately rear-ended another car before running over 64-year-old Andreas Probst, a retired police chief, who was riding his bike. Probst died of his injuries, and both teens are now facing murder charges as adults.