The girlfriend of Elijah DeWitt, a high school football star who was killed on Oct. 5, spoke out about the heartbreaking encounter to Fox News on Tuesday, revealing the last thing he said to her before his death.
“I run over to Elijah, and he’s on the ground, and I go right over to him, and he mouths to me — the last word he said to me was ‘help,'” DeWitt’s girlfriend, Bailey Reidling, told the outlet about the shooting at the Sugarloaf Mills Mall’s parking lot in Lawrenceville, Georgia. After DeWitt’s plea for help, she unsuccessfully attempted to locate a pulse, she said to the outlet. “I got freaked out because there is nothing going on there.”
A “sweet lady” purportedly approached Reidling from around the corner to tell her, “‘Baby, he just got shot. Calm down. We called 911. They’re already on their way.'”
Georgia high school football star Elijah DeWitt, nicknamed Eazy E by @CameronNewton, was “an athlete at heart” and a loving “light,” girlfriend Bailey Reidling, tells me, explaining her choice to forgive two murder suspects back from SC.https://t.co/9fGZ5sbMdm @CamNewton7v7
— Danielle Wallace (@danimwallace) October 11, 2022
DeWitt, 17, was reportedly shot around 8:15 p.m. in the mall parking lot, according to a press release from the Gwinnett County, Georgia. Authorities captured suspects Kemare Bryan, 18, and Chandler Richardson, 19, two days later in South Carolina, according to Fox News. Gwinnett police charged the alleged perpetrators with Felony Murder, Malice Murder, Aggravated Assault, and Possession of a Firearm During the Commission of Certain Felonies, the release stated.
Prior to the incident, Dewitt and Reidling, who had been in a relationship for five years, were on a double date with friends, according to Fox News. DeWitt gave her his credit card to get food, after which Reidling went inside to use the bathroom. When she came back out, she saw “everything’s red,” she said to the outlet. (RELATED: 3 Ohio Men Allegedly Beat Teenager To Death, Steal His Car Outside Of High School Founded By LeBron James)
DeWitt’s mother believes that the incident was a result of a botched robbery, according to the New York Post.
“The suspects and the victim were familiar with each other,” police said, according to the outlet. An altercation apparently broke out before the shooting.
Reidling has chosen to forgive the alleged killers, she told Fox. “This is not the only crime, it is everywhere.”
“He would have forgave them. I’m going to,” she said referencing DeWitt, according to Fox News. “I genuinely think he’s at peace now… So, I guess that brings me peace.”