A 19-year-old was shot dead during a bonfire party in the Virginia woods while trying to break up a fight — with his girlfriend, who warned him not to go, heartbreakingly discovering he was killed in a two-word text from his father.
Christian Archen Whalen was partying with a “large group” in a wooded area in Spotsylvania County, about 55 miles outside Richmond, just after midnight Sunday when a fight between other partygoers broke out, the Spotsylvania County Sheriff’s Office confirmed in a press release Monday.
Whalen was shot “in the lower extremity” when he attempted to break up the fight, police said.
The department said it responded around 1 a.m. after receiving reports of a shooting and found the wounded teen fighting for his life.
“Deputies immediately began to render life-saving measures. A deputy on scene loaded him into his cruiser and transported him to a rescue squad,” the Spotsylvania County Sheriff’s Office said.
Whalen was then rushed to a local hospital, where he died from his injuries.
After speaking with numerous witnesses, detectives determined that Kenneth Watson fired the shot that killed the 19-year-old while he tried to break up the fight.
Watson, 18, has been charged with homicide and use of a firearm in the commission of a felony and is being held without bond at the Rappahannock Regional Jail.
The Spotsylvania County Sheriff’s Office said it is still investigating the shooting.
Whalen’s girlfriend, Lacy Milling, 16, told NBC 4 that she tried telling him not to go to the party, but he decided to go anyway.
Milling, who had been dating Whalen for over a year, said she grew worried when he stopped answering her texts.
Unsure of what happened to her boyfriend, the grieving 16-year-old said her worst fears became reality when she started seeing posts on social media from others offering prayers for Whalen.
“I go on Snapchat, and I see people posting on their story ‘pray for Christian,’” she told the outlet. “Just, it was everywhere.”
It wasn’t until later that evening when Milling said she got a text from Whalen’s father that said her boyfriend had died.
“I see a notification from his dad saying, ‘Christian died,’” the heartbroken teen said. “Literally, those two words.”
However, learning how her boyfriend died didn’t come as a shock to Milling, who regarded him as the “kindest person.”
“He would help anybody, like, even it came down to his worst enemy,” she shared, adding that Whalen did “not like arguing at all.”
Now, the 16-year-old, who had dreams of starting a family with the slain teen, feels Whalen’s alleged killer robbed them of a future.
“He took what I wanted the most, which was almost a family to grow up with,” a teary-eyed Milling told the outlet. “I almost had what I wanted, but he took it from me.”
A crowdfunding page set up by Milling to help support Whalen’s family with funeral costs said the last message she received from her boyfriend was him apologizing for not always being “the best person.”
“‘I’m sorry that I’m not the best person, but I love you,’” she said his final message to her read.
She called Whalen a “gentle, genuine, loyal, and caring person” who would always tell her “I love you” and “thank you” before he left to go anywhere because, he always said, “the next 30 minutes isn’t promised.”
“His poor family now has to live on without their precious son because of these selfish people that don’t deserve to carry guns,” a grief-stricken Milling wrote.
