A 19-year-old was fatally shot over the weekend in Fredericksburg, Virginia, while trying to break up a fight at a bonfire party. An 18-year-old has been arrested for pulling the trigger.
The Spotsylvania County Sheriff's Office said it first learned of the shooting after midnight on Sunday, Aug. 31. near the Hunting Run reservoir, where a "large group" of teenagers were attending a bonfire party and "trespassing on property owned" by the county "when a fight broke out."
Authorities said that by the time they arrived to Spotswood Furnace Road, 19-year-old Christian Archen Whalen was found with a gunshot wound "in the lower extremity" while attempting to "break the fight up." Whalen was rushed to a hospital, thereafter, where he succumbed to his injuries.
"Deputies immediately began to render life-saving measures. A deputy on scene loaded him into his cruiser and transported him to a rescue squad. Christian was transported to a local hospital where he succumbed to his injuries," the sheriff's office said.
Citing witness accounts from the scene, investigators said, the shooting suspect was identified as 18-year-old Kenneth Watson. It's unclear if he and the victim knew one another and unclear what exactly led to the fight and gunfire, but Watson was arrested and booked into the Rappahannock Regional Jail without bond on homicide and gun charges.
"Detectives are relying on witnesses who may have been at the party that left before law enforcement's arrival," authorities said, offering "sincere condolences" to the victim's friends and family. "Anyone with information is asked to contact the Spotsylvania Sheriff's Office."
Adding to the tragedy, Whalen's girlfriend Lacy Milling said in an interview with Washington, D.C.-area, local affiliate WRC-TV that she warned Christian not to go to the bonfire party that night.
She said she first suspected something was wrong when he didn't respond to her texts, but seeing people posting "pray for Christian" online and "everywhere" on Snapchat only heightened those worries.
Then, Milling said, Whalen's father sent her a two-word message she'll never forget. "I see a notification from his dad saying, 'Christian died,'" Milling told WRC-TV. "Literally, those two words."
A GoFundMe campaign started for Whalen identified him as Milling's fiancé and said that he was "everybody's friend who he ever encountered and was always one call away for help," and yet she and his family "now has to live on without their precious son because of these selfish people that don't deserve to carry guns."
