A 19-year-old man was shot and killed during a bonfire party in the woods of Virginia after trying to stop a fight with his girlfriend, who had warned him not to go to the party, and then, heartbreakingly, learning he was killed by a two-word text message from his father.
Christian Arken Whalen was partying with a “large group” in a wooded area in Spotsylvania County, about 55 miles from Richmond, just after midnight Sunday when a fight broke out among other attendees, the Spotsylvania County Sheriff's Office said. Confirmed in a press release on Monday.
Police said Whalen was shot in his “lower extremities” while trying to break up a fight.
Police said they responded to the scene around 1 a.m. after receiving a report of a shooting and found the injured boy fighting for his life.
“Officers immediately began life-saving measures. Officers on scene placed him in a patrol vehicle and transported him to emergency services,” the Spotsylvania County Sheriff's Office said in a statement.
Whalen was taken to a local hospital where he later died from his injuries.
After speaking with multiple witnesses, detectives determined that Kenneth Watson fired the fatal shot that killed the 19-year-old man while trying to break up a fight.
Watson, 18, has been charged with murder and use of a firearm in the commission of a felony and is currently being held without bail at the Rappahannock Regional Jail.
The Spotsylvania County Sheriff's Office said the shooting remains under investigation.
Whalen's girlfriend, Lacey Milling, 16, NBC4 She tried to tell him not to go to the party, but he decided to go after all.
Milling, who had been in a relationship with Whalen for more than a year, said she became concerned when he stopped responding to her text messages.
The grieving 16-year-old girl, who doesn't know what happened to her boyfriend, said her worst fears became clear when she began seeing social media posts from others praying for Whalen.
“You go on Snapchat and you see people posting on their stories, 'Pray for Christians,'” she told the outlet. “It was just everywhere.”
Milling said it wasn't until that evening that she received a text from Whalen's father informing her that her boyfriend had died.
“I got a text from his dad saying, 'Christian is dead,'” the heartbroken boy said. “Those were the two words, literally.”
But learning the cause of her boyfriend's death wasn't a shock to Milling, who thought of him as “the nicest person”.
“He was someone who would help anyone, even their worst enemy,” she said, adding: “Mr Whalen never liked arguments.”
A 16-year-old girl who was promised a family with the murdered boy now feels Whalen's suspected killer has robbed her of her future.
“He took away what I wanted most – a family to grow up with,” a tearful Milling told the outlet. “I had almost everything I wanted, and he took it from me.”
a Crowdfunding On a page set up by Ms Milling to help Whalen's family with funeral expenses, she wrote that the last message she received from her boyfriend was an apology for not always being “the best person”.
“'I'm sorry I'm not the best person, but I love you,'” she shared the last message he read to her before he was killed.
She called Whaling a “kind, genuine, sincere and caring person” and said he would always say “I love you and thank you” before going out somewhere because he would always say, “The next 30 minutes aren't promised.”
“His family must now live with the loss of their precious son because of selfish people who do not deserve to own guns,” a heartbroken Milling wrote.
