The girlfriend of the teenage football star who was shot dead by two young men while out on a date with his partner has spoken out.
18-year-old Elijah DeWitt from Georgia was a Jefferson High School student and a football enthusiast who was at Sugarloaf Mills Mall in Lawrenceville with his girlfriend and another couple when he was shot dead.
Following the deadly altercation between DeWitt and two other teenagers, 18-year-old Kemare Bryan and 19-year-old Chandler Richardson, Elijah’s girlfriend, Bailey Reidling, spoke out and recalled the harrowing events that took place on October 5.
As the grieving girl revealed, she and her boyfriend were at Dave & Buster’s along with their friends Oscar and Angel when Elijah gave her his credit card and asked her to buy some food.
Moments later, Angel and Bailey headed to the bathroom, whereas they were unable to find their dates after returning to their table.
After calling them both multiple times, Oscar finally picked up the phone and frantically told them that they were “outside.”
When Bailey and Angel rushed outside the restaurant, they saw Elijah lying in a pool of his own blood with Oscar kneeling next to him.
“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,’” the young footballer’s girlfriend recalled in an interview with Fox News.
“I checked his pulse, and I got freaked out because there is nothing going on there.
“You’re screaming in the moment because you’re in shock. Some sweet lady came around the corner and said, ‘Baby, he just got shot. Calm down. We called 911. They are already on their way.’”
Following the 911 call, the police arrested 18-year-old Kemare Bryan and 19-year-old Chandler Richardson and charged them with murder and possession of a firearm.
While the motive for the shooting remains unclear, it has been suggested that the trio knew each other from before and that there was some sort of altercation between them in the moments leading to the shooting.
As Bailey confirmed, her boyfriend allegedly knew the suspects because he met them at the restaurant just days earlier.
She also claimed a source told her that her boyfriend was approached by Richardson and Bryan who wanted to know if he had marijuana.
“Elijah would forgive them, which seems like he wouldn’t, you know, if you’re one of those guy friends or if you see him on the field, he’s a scary player, but he would have forgave them. I’m going to,” Bailey said after the shooting.
“There’s something in my heart telling me to. I haven’t got any hatred towards them. Anger? Yes.”
The interview comes shortly after Bailey professed her love for her football star boyfriend and admitted that what had happened to her didn’t seem real.
“They say you aren’t supposed to question God but damn. I never thought I would be having to write this. Baby, I know you couldn’t help what happened but damn why’d you leave me,” she wrote.
“None of this is real to me yet, so I feel like I’m stuck. I don’t think any of it because I truly believe in a long a** dream… I’m waiting for you to text me, call me back, or snap me.
“Elijah, I need you with me. I need you here to tell me if I’m being dramatic, I need you here to give me a hug even when I don’t want a hug… to kiss me and tell me everything is going to be okay, to tell me to come inside and just lay in the bed when I mentally or physically don’t feel good.”
Our thoughts are with Elijah’s family and friends.
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