Las Vegas police are searching for two more teens wanted in the fatal beating of a 17-year-old high school student — as four other teens involved in the fight are set to be tried as adults.
The Las Vegas Metro Police Department released new footage Wednesday from the “senseless beating” that claimed the life of Rancho High School student Jonathan Lewis Jr. last week, highlighting two suspects who allegedly took part in attacking the boy over a pair of stolen headphones.
The LVMPD is looking for the public’s help in identifying the two teens, urging anyone to contact either their homicide department or Crime Stoppers for tips.
The two teens would round out the suspects believed to have taken part in that brutal attack after police announced the arrests of eight others on Tuesday.
While the teens arrested so far range from ages 13 to 17, Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson is seeking to try them as adults, with four of the older teens already transferred to the adult court system.
The other four teens, who are younger than 16, will stay in Family Court, a judge decided Wednesday, with the students set to return to court on Dec. 6.
“At the end of the day, a young man was brutally murdered, and I believe that some of these juveniles will be held responsible,” Wolfson told the The Las Vegas Review Journal.
None of the arrested teens were named by police because of their ages.
The uncle of one of the 16-year-olds being tried as adults said the situation was terrible “for all the families,” but said questions still remained about who took part in the beating.
“Nobody knows who did what. All you see is a bunch of kids in a crowd,” he told 8 News Now, referencing the videos of the attack uploaded to social media. “You don’t know who is who or what is what.”
The fatal assault took place on Nov. 1 near the high school when Lewis got into a fight with an unnamed peer over a set of wireless headphones that were allegedly stolen from Lewis or one of his friends, Las Vegas Homicide Lt. Jason Johansson said.
The fight also likely stemmed from a stolen vape pen from incidents earlier in the week, police added.
After the first punch was thrown, a mob of students swarmed Lewis, pushing him to the ground and violently beating the teen in an attack Johansson described as “very void of humanity” and “heinous.”
Lewis died less than a week later from blunt force trauma, changing the case to a homicide investigation.
The victim’s father, also named Jonathan Lewis, said his son died sticking up for one of his friends.
“I just love my children with all my heart, and it’s just unimaginable that we could ever come to this point,” Lewis’ father previously told 8 News Now.