A teenager at a bonfire party was shot dead while trying to break up a fight in the Virginia woods just after midnight on Sunday, and his girlfriend learned the tragic news in a two-word text from his father.
Christian Archen Whalen, 19, was with “a large group” that had gathered and were “trespassing” on property owned by Spotsylvania County when the fight broke out, police said in a press release Monday.
When Whalen tried to break up the fight, another teenager shot him “in the lower extremity,” police said.
Deputies responded around 1 a.m. to reports of a shooting, and Whalen was taken to a hospital, where he died.
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Whalen’s girlfriend, Lacy Milling, told NBC4that she warned him against going to the party and became worried when he did not return her texts. Her fears were confirmed when she started seeing posts …