As Khaseen Morris lay on the pavement outside a Long Island strip mall Monday night with a fatal stab wound to his chest following a violent brawl, a group of about 50 teens stood by instead of helping the 16-year-old boy, police said.
The fight broke out in Oceanside, New York, and was captured on video posted on social media. Police said that 50 or more teens were present, either watching or participating in the fight and that no one came to Khaseen's aid.
Instead, police said many of them filmed Khaseen as he lay bleeding on the concrete and circulated the videos on Snapchat and other social media.
Khaseen died of his injuries at the hospital Monday night. He would've turned 17 next month.
"Kids stood here and didn't help Khaseen — they would rather video this event. They videoed his death instead of helping him," Nassau County Police Department Detective Lt. Stephen Fitzpatrick said in a press conference. "Your friends are dying while you’re standing there and videoing it. That’s egregious."
Arrests have not yet been made, but teens have come forward and identified several possible suspects, police said. On social media, people have circulated the name and photo of a teen purported to have been involved with the stabbing, but police have not confirmed.
Khaseen's sister, Keyanna Morris, 30, told BuzzFeed News her brother loved skateboarding, music, tie-dye clothes, and drawing anime. He "was the baby" in the family of four very close siblings.
"Khaseen was loved by everyone and literally loved everyone," Keyanna Morris said. "He always said he would change the world. He wanted the world to be so much better than it was. Didn't matter if you were black, white, Hispanic, gay, straight, he loved every color."
Keyanna Morris said her family had just moved to the town, and that Khaseen was excited for a fresh start at a new school. In just the 10 days he attended Oceanside High School, he made so many friends, she said.
"He was smiling from ear to ear on his first day," she said. "He told my mom, 'This is the happiest I've ever been in so long.'"
The fight began over a girl, who was not present during the fight, police said.
Khaseen had walked a girl home from a party the previous weekend so she wouldn't have to walk alone at night, Keyanna Morris said. He skateboarded home after dropping her off.
Keyanna Morris said the girl's jealous ex-boyfriend had begun threatening Khaseen and saying he wanted to fight him.
"Khaseen was just so peaceful," Keyanna Morris said. "At that point, he was just saying, if someone is going to fight me I'll protect myself, but I'm not gonna push for a fight."
"But I don't think any of those kids thought anyone was going to bring a weapon," she added.
Keyanna Morris said she and her siblings always said they didn't know how to live without each other, and the idea of having to learn to live without Khaseen is painful beyond words.
"It's always been the four of us," she said. "And it's been tough on my mom and my dad. They lost their baby."
Keyanna Morris said seeing the video of the fight that killed her brother circulate online has been especially upsetting, and that her coworkers and local community have been reporting them so they're taken down whenever they pop back up.
"I just hope that it stays down," she said.
Oceanside High School is providing grief counselors to help students and faculty cope with the tragedy, the superintendent said on the school website.
Even though he had attended the school for less than two weeks, Keyanna Morris said many people have told her family what an impact he had there.
"Everyone reached out and said how much he changed the school with how positive he was — no one could be down or depressed around him," she said.
Administrators at the school have also reached out to the family, she said, and have told them how deeply this loss has affected the student body.
"These kids even said they want to change, and they want to put their phones down now and actually help," Morris said. "Because I guess they realize now if they would've put their phones down, Khaseen would've probably made it."