Witness stayed by side of Missouri high school student until the end after shooting at gas station
By La’Nita Brooks
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RAYTOWN, Missouri (KSHB) — A Raytown High School student was shot and killed Wednesday afternoon at a Casey’s gas station on Blue Ridge Boulevard.
Raytown police responded to the scene just after 1 p.m. for a juvenile male suffering from a gunshot wound. The teen was taken to a local hospital where he died. Raytown High School later confirmed the student was Joshua Lewis.
Elizabeth Baquedano was driving home from work when she noticed commotion at the gas station. She asked that her face not be shown.
Baquedano said she heard the shot and watched what unfolded.
“I heard a pop, which I recognized as a gunshot. And when I turned, one of the students had fallen,” she said. “And I noticed that he fell but I noticed that the other two that were with him ran. They got on bikes and they left.”
She said she turned around and ran to help Lewis immediately.
“I pulled into the parking lot, and I got out and I ran to him,” Baquedano said. “He was shot in the shoulder up here and he was bleeding profusely.”
Baquedano stayed with Lewis appyling pressure to his wound while trying to keep him conscious.
“I kept trying to wake him up, I kept telling him, ‘Sweetie please get up,'” she said. “I said, ‘Don’t worry, they’re coming, help is on the way.'”
Detectives spent the afternoon processing the scene, using a canine to search the area for evidence.
Pastor Michael Johnson, whose church is nearby, said he had left the property shortly before the shooting occurred. That morning, he said he felt a nudge to cancel his usual Bible study.
“I had not long left the property,” Johnson said. “And so, I got a call that there was a shooting on the property. It’s two-fold. You know, I’m happy that we weren’t here but at the same time my heart goes out to the young man that lost his life.”
Around the corner at 59th and Hedges, a second police presence developed Thursday afternoon. Officers were seen approaching a home with rifles drawn, and police appeared to remove evidence from the home along with two bicycles. It is unclear at this time whether the activity at that location is connected to the shooting.
Baquedano said she wants Lewis’s family to know he was not alone.
“I just hope that they know that he was prayed over, he was constantly reminded that he was loved and that I did everything I could to be there with him” she said.
The investigation is ongoing.
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