The last word that 18-year-old Elijah DeWitt mouthed was “help”.
As he lay on the ground, bleeding out from gunshot wounds, his girlfriend of five years, Bailey Reidling, tried to make sense of the horrifying scene she found in the parking lot of the Sugarloaf Mills Mall in Lawrenceville, 30 miles northeast of Atlanta, Georgia.
“I run over to Elijah, and he’s on the ground, and I go right over to him,” Ms Reidling, 20, told Fox News Digital. “I checked his pulse, and I got freaked out because there is nothing going on there. Some sweet lady came around the corner and said, ‘Baby, he just got shot. Calm down. We called 911. They’re already on their way.’”
The 5 October assault, which police initially believed to be a botched robbery, proved fatal for DeWitt, a rising football star who had been nicknamed ‘Eazy E’ by NFL star Cam Newton.
Kemare Bryan, 18, and Chandler Richardson, 19, were arrested in South Carolina and have since been extradited back to Georgia on felony murder charges.
A Gwinnett County judge denied bond for the men on Tuesday and told them, “Do you know what this means for you? You’re going to be here for a while,” when they appeared before him in Wednesday hearing, 11 Alive reported. Mr Bryan has retained legal counsel while Mr Richardson declined a public defender and said he is still trying to find an attorney.
Here’s everything we know about the case:
A tragic date
Before the tragedy unfolded, Ms Reidling and DeWitt had planned to play games and have dinner at the Dave & Busters arcade in the Sugarloaf Mills Mall. They had gone on a double date with friends.
Ms Ridling told Fox that DeWitt had given her his credit card so she could buy their food but she made a stop at the restroom with her female friend. When she returned to the parking, she saw “everything red.”
What was supposed to be a regular date for the couple became a scene out of a horror movie when Ms Ridling found her high school sweetheart laying on the floor. At first, she didn’t realise that he had been shot, Ms Ridling told Fox, but other witnesses explained to her what had just happened.
“You’re screaming in the moment because you’re in shock. So, it’s like a scream that you don’t try to do, it’s just coming out,” she told Fox News.
It is unclear whether DeWitt died at the scene or was transported to a hospital with a pulse.
Two suspects are arrested in South Carolina
Two days after the shooting, police in South Carolina arrested Mr Bryan and Mr Richardson on gun possession charges.
They were later extradited to Georgia, where they face felony murder charges.
Authorities have said that the victim knew his assailants but did not disclose their relationship, a claim that was pushed back by DeWitt’s mother, Dawn DeWitt.
“His life just came completely to a screeching halt in seconds,” Ms DeWitt told Fox 5 Atlanta. “I want him to be remembered as a fierce competitor with a very large heart.”
DeWitt was a wide receiver on the Jefferson High School football team, his family also said.
Tanisha Gales, a teacher at the school, told 11alive that the staff is trying to be supportive and be there for students.
“This has shown me the real true meaning of community,” Ms Gales told the station.
”It was hard to see young men shedding tears over their friend, you know, when you work so close together, you’ve grown up playing sports together it becomes a brotherhood. It’s really going to impact them on Friday when they start back on that field and he’s no longer there.”
A family chooses to forgive
On Sunday, his loved ones held a candlelit vigil as a tribute to DeWitt’s life and the bright future he had had ahead of him.
The football star’s family has voiced their intention to forgive the perpetrators of the crime that took their son’s life, saying they don’t know the circumstances.
“Forgiveness is for the forgiver,” Craig DeWitt, Elijah DeWitt’s father, told Fox 5. “We don’t want the hate in this household.”
His girlfriend agreed that she had also decided to honour DeWitt’s forgiving spirit: “There’s something in my heart telling me to. I haven’t got any hatred towards them. Anger? Yes.”
Family and friends have thanked the community for the outpouring of support they’ve received in the aftermath of the tragedy. More than $50,000 have been raised for funeral costs on a GoFundMe page.
“We are working toward an idea to hono[u]r Elijah and keep his memory alive and acknowledge that there are many needs in the coming months for friends and family of the DeWitts that you could directly impact,” the description of the fundraiser reads.
On Facebook, Lauren DeWitt, Elijah DeWitt’s aunt, remembered him as a “warrior” and a “great man.”
“He was our child, but he was also our Warrior. He was a protector of his family, his sister, the love of his life Bailey, and to those of you that shared a field with him,” she wrote. “He did not worry about the future, he LIVED in the moment.”
“He loved big, he was/is loved by a whole community and he changed the lives of those he encountered.”
Authorities have said that they don’t expect more arrests in the case.
