Hero

Photo by TK

This story made its rounds online and on the nightly news but I believe it deserves more attention before it fades into our memories as something that happened somewhere in our pasts.

A young man in his teens died recently. Tragic but unfortunately not uncommon in our world. But his was not the only life that has tragically ended in this incident. His name is Jonathan Lewis Jr. and he was 17 years old. His whole life ahead of him. And when you read further you will know that it was a life that we would loved to have seen come to fruition.

There was an altercation at Rancho HS in Las Vegas. Approximately fifteen kids were involved in a mob that was beating a young student. This student made the mistake of trying to get something back that the mob had stolen from him. The mob then threw this young man into a trash can. This young man was one of Jonathan’s friends. Jonathan went to intervene on his friend’s behalf.

“Jonathan just wanted to protect his friend”, said Jonathan Lewis Sr.

He wanted to help his friend. One young man was being harassed by possibly up to fifteen people and one man jumps in to help his friend. How many stood around and just filmed it? Police and school officials are using the many videos’ witnesses recorded as evidence to hunt down the perpetrators. And this is good. But how does a crowd of people stand by and do nothing while a young man is beaten and kicked to death?

Mob was made up of people between the ages of 13-17. Eight students have been apprehended and charged with murder. So far nine lives have ended in this incident. In a statement to the press the Clark County School District said it was working with police and the district attorney’s office to bring all of those responsible for Jonathan’s death to justice. Justice is important but its is too little too late. We can talk all day about why there was not enough supervisory help in the area to stop the fight or maybe the kids needed better mentorship to make up for poor parental guidance at home? I do not have any of those answers and to guess would be a disservice to all involved.

But that will not bring Jonathan back to us. Here was a young man who ran to the aide of a friend. Jonathan ran towards danger. How many of us could say that we would do the same? He did not stand there and whip out his phone to film the situation as everyone else did. I do not know what was going through his mind. Did he enter the fray and without a thought of himself? One against fifteen. Did he know that it was a “no win” situation? Those are formidable odds for even a movie star in an action film. He wanted to help his friend. Maybe he felt the mob would stop once he intervened? Whatever was going through his head, this young man is a hero. Selfless and caring, he was the only person in an entire school that was doing what he was supposed to be doing. Defending someone who could not protect themselves.