Friends, family grieving after 17-year-old killed near his school; police arrest suspect, 17
GALENA PARK, Texas - Loved ones are in mourning after a Galena Park High School student was shot to death shortly after school yesterday.
Harris County Sheriff's Office Homicide investigators have arrested 17-year-old Johnny Lewis for the robbery and murder of Marcos Orta, a senior at Galena Park High School.
The gunshots rang out in a community center parking lot, right next to Galena Park High School. The shooting left the 17-year-old Galena Park senior dead. A non-stop crowd of kids have been going by leaving flowers, balloons, and other mementos to remember their friend.
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"All I heard was three shots, bop, bop, bop," explains one friend.
After hearing the gunshots he rushed over, learning his long-time friend Marcos Orta had been shot and was rushed to the hospital where he died. "It’s like losing a brother, man. It’s like my little brother right there. Now, I’m never going to hear his voice," Orta’s friend says.
17-year-old boy remembered in Galena Park after deadly shooting
Detectives are trying to figure out who shot and killed Galena Park High School student Marcos Orta shortly after school ended on Thursday. FOX 26's Damali Keith speaks to students who have been leaving flowers and mourning their lost friend.
Harris County Sheriff’s investigators say Orta was outside at the Baggett Community Center talking with two other boys around his age at 5 p.m. on Thursday and a dispute broke out. Then one of the teens opened fire on Orta shooting him at least three times.
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"He didn’t have problems with nobody. I don’t know. I can’t believe it," says one friend through tears.
In a heartbreaking huddle, friends are hugging, praying, and trying to comfort one another and lending emotional support to Orta’s dad at the spot where the 17-year-old spent his last moments alive.
"Everybody loved him. You see everybody came out. I don’t even know what to say. It was unreal. I went to sleep thinking it would be a dream, woke up he’s still not here. We just played basketball. That’s the last ball we used," another boy says pointing to a basketball on the ground near Orta’s middle school basketball picture, which are both apart of the growing memorial.
Orta’s father says his son had been looking forward to a special senior trip to Denver with his dad and six siblings, but now just three months from graduating loved ones are preparing for the teen’s funeral instead of his graduation.
"We live in a cruel world, man. All we can do is push through it," says one friend.
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Investigators are still attempting to determine the identity of a second suspect involved in this case and urge anyone with information about the incident to contact the Harris County Sheriff's Office Homicide Unit or Crime Stoppers of Houston.