I try not to let my work get to me

But one particular story hit me hard recently.

Dealing with unpleasant material is something that undoubtedly comes with the territory at work. In fact, I’d guess that rarely a work day passes at the station during which I don’t write about something really awful. It’s part of the job, but that doesn’t mean that I’m immune to feeling anything when I write those gristly details. Recently, I had one that hit me in an unexpectedly personal way, and it is now a story that has garnered some national traction, so I expect it’s not going away anytime soon.

Jonathan Lewis was a 17-year-old high school student here in Las Vegas. Many of the details of his story are unconfirmed, but what seems likely to have happened is that he got involved to help out a smaller friend of his who was greatly outnumbered. There’s shaky, low-quality video out there of some of what ensued, but according to Las Vegas police, Jonathan was immediately jumped by somewhere between 10-15 other kids.

And they are all kids. The suspects in the case (and the victim) were all between the ages of 13-17. Jonathan was beaten so severely that he was unresponsive when police found him. He was taken to the hospital in critical condition and ultimately placed on life support, which was turned off a few days later.