Ethan Liming Akron Ohio teen beaten to death after firing water gun in horse play gone wrong. No suspect or arrests as police dispel rumors deadly attack was race related.
An Ohio teen boy was beaten to death outside an Akron area school after driving around with friends and shooting a water gun at people, according to reports.
Ethan Liming, 17, was found Thursday in the parking lot near the basketball courts of the I Promise School in Akron, Fox 8 reported.
It is thought that the teen was attacked after Liming and three of his pals began firing the water gun at four ‘black’ players basketball outside the school just on 10.45pm.
The friends who claim were just ‘joking around’ were then confronted by the players (described as teens or young men) before an altercation ensued, leading to Liming then being attacked.
The victim’s other teen friends in a 911 call said he was kicked and punched until he was knocked out, with the players then fleeing the scene.
‘Teenagers were being teenagers,’
Cause of death was determined to be blunt force head trauma.
To date no suspects have been identified.
The teen’s death has since led to the victim’s family asking for anyone with information to step forward.
‘Ethan was everything, he was a good boy, he was a smart boy. He loved life. He loved living life. He wanted to be friends with everybody,’ his mother, Jennifer Liming, said Tuesday, the Akron Beacon Journal reported. ‘Ethan didn’t see color, he saw hearts. He was just such a good person.’
Bill, a pastor at the Montrose Zion United Methodist Church, said his son and three friends went to the I Promise School Thursday night to figure out what they wanted to do.
The four friends ran into another group, including three young males and a young female, before an altercation the father described as ‘horseplay’ escalated.
‘Teenagers were being teenagers,’ Bill told the Beacon Journal. ‘I don’t want to say too much about the investigation. But apparently some of his friends who were with him were fooling around in the parking lot and some other people didn’t like it.’
Was attack race related?
The father said Ethan got out of the car and ‘told people to relax — ‘It’s a joke, it’s a joke,’ and the individuals didn’t like that. One individual attacked him.’
Another person then came up from behind and hit Ethan in the head, Bill said.
‘He was fighting back for his life. A third individual came up behind him and overwhelmed him. And they knocked him out on the ground. His friends tried to help him,’ he said.
‘My son Ethan Liming was murdered by three African American males and a female who stood by and did nothing,’ Bill added.
On Wednesday, Police Chief Stephen Mylett and Mayor Dan Horrigan held a news conference to clear up rumors that the teen’s death was ‘race’ related.
‘There were assumptions made that this was a race-related incident,’ Mylett said. ‘There is nothing that we have in our possession right now, any information at all indicating race played a role in this homicide. Nothing.
No suspect or arrests a week after deadly assault
‘I want to reassure the community that if we do receive information that race played a role in this, as in any homicide, we will consult with our prosecuting attorneys and add additional charges,’ the chief said.
Officials said investigators believe Ethan, who was white, and his friends, one of whom is white and the other two black, used a SplatRBall Water Bead Blaster on some people before the teen was fatally assaulted.
‘It was a senseless act of violence in our city yet again,’ Mylett told reporters. ‘We have a lot of work to do in this city as the country does at large.’
The victim’s father said: ‘We live in a sick world. People look at each other based on the color of skin or the fact somebody disagrees with somebody else.’
Adding, ‘And because you disagree with me, you must be evil. And we have so dehumanized each other in our society — that’s why my son was murdered,’
‘Some people looked at him as somebody whose life didn’t matter. And it just breaks our hearts. And we don’t want this to happen to anybody else’s child.’
No arrests have been made and the investigation is ongoing.
CrimeStoppers is offering a reward of up to $5,000 for tips in the case.
