Candlelight vigil planned for Arlington High School student killed in shooting
The family of an Arlington High School student who was killed in a shooting Thursday will hold a candlelight vigil for him outside the school Friday evening.
The vigil for 16-year-old Sam Reynolds is scheduled for 6 p.m. in the north parking lot of Arlington High, 818 W. Park Row.
“We are having a candlelight vigil for Sam,” Reynolds’ mother, Madison Fletcher, wrote on Facebook. “Anyone who would like to come and be surrounded by his friends and loved ones is more than welcome. We all need to be surrounded by love.”
A GoFundMe page also has been started to help the family with funeral and other expenses. Reynolds was Fletcher’s only child, according to the GoFundMe post.
“Madison and Sam had a stronger bond then you could ever imagine — it has always been the two of them, the best of friends,” the GoFundMe post reads.
The post describes Sam as an excellent student who loved playing soccer and going to the lake with his grandfather.
Reynolds was fatally shot Thursday afternoon in the grass between buildings at the Arlington apartment complex where he lived in the 900 block of Benge Drive, and police arrested another youth in the killing. The apartments are near Arlington High School and the University of Texas at Arlington.
Arlington police detectives later arrested a suspect, a boy whose name and age police declined to release because he is a juvenile.
The family told investigators that they believe the shooting started because the victim had broken up a fight a few days ago involving the suspect, Arlington police said. Surveillance video afforded investigators an opportunity to quickly apprehend the suspect and shows the shooting, according to police.
Witnesses told police that they saw the suspect, a skinny young man wearing a black hoodie, walking with Reynolds.
The suspect fired one shot toward the victim’s chest and then ran away, according to witnesses interviewed by police. Reynolds took a few steps and then fell to the ground.
“This was an emotionally tough case for responding officers, investigators and medics,” Arlington Police Chief Will Johnson said in a statement. “We will direct our attention to how a young teen suspect accessed a firearm used in the offense.”
This story was originally published February 7, 2020 at 1:59 PM.
