CALGARY- “He looked me in the eyes and told me, ‘I’m dying.’”
That’s how witnesses remember the night that 18-year-old Lukas Strasser-Hird was stabbed and beaten in the street, following a bar brawl.
It happened in the early hours of Saturday morning, after an altercation between two groups outside of Vinyl night club downtown. Bar staff separated the groups, sending one of them out the back door, but they found each other. That’s when the deadly fight broke out, with Lukas throwing a punch at his attackers.
“There’s a group of about seven to 10 people yelling, swearing. They came right up to Lukas, tried to hit him, tried to stomp him,” remembers one of the people at the scene, who doesn’t want to be identified over fears he will be targeted. “I was pushing off these guys to try to defend Lukas, because they had already done too much.”
The group claims some of the attackers came back to fight, even after Lukas had been stabbed.
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“I was shouting, ‘it’s not worth it, you’ve done enough.’”
Those responsible finally left once police arrived, but it was too late to save Lukas. He was found lying against a dumpster in an alley.
“The entire time I’m trying to talk to him. ‘Lukas, you gotta stay awake, you gotta stay with me.’ The last thing he said to me was ‘I’m dying, I’m dying, I’m gonna die.’”
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Lukas passed away from his injuries, just hours after being rushed to hospital.
Those that were there that fateful night have since been trying to comfort his grieving family.
“I think had we not been there and no one stopped it, he probably would have died in the alley, rather than beside his family.”
Nathan Paul Gervais, 18, has since been charged with first-degree murder in the case. Franz Emir Cabrera, 19, faces second-degree murder charges.
Police believe more people were involved, and hope anyone with information will come forward.
Family and friends are paying their respects to Lukas through a Facebook page set up in his memory.
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