Honoring a 15-year-old hero who took bullets while saving others

World Today

Loved ones said their farewells to one of the bravest victims of the Parkland shooting. Peter Wang died a hero, taking bullets while saving others.

CGTN’s Nitza Soledad Perez reports. 

Wang was only 15-years-old. He died wearing the Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps uniform he treasured and holding the door so other students from the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School could escape from the bullets.

He was shot repeatedly as he put others before himself.

The U.S. Army awarded Peter with a posthumous medal for his heroism. Also, in recognition of his valor, the U.S. Military Academy at West Point posthumously admitted Peter to the class of 2025. That was one of his dreams, attending the prestigious military university.

His friends were inconsolable.

“He was possibly one of the kindest person’s I’ve ever met. I’ve always said that. Like, out of our group of friends and family, he was the nicest,” friend Xi Chen said.

Tears mingled with anger, too many young lives lost.

“I don’t want any mom, any parent to have to go through this ever again. Never again and my son went to that school. He was in another building during the shooting. Thank God he made it out alive, but the students want this to be the last mass shooting ever,” Cam Hoang said.

The community had filed a petition request with the White House to allow Peter to have a military funeral. The request needed 100,000 signatures but there wasn’t enough time.

Patriot Guard Riders, a motorized group of veterans, joined the service.

“Peter is a hero. He sacrificed his life to save other students’ lives. That is my example of a hero, give a life for somebody else and probably many of those students he didn’t know,” U.S. military veteran Henry Hyde said.

Florida Governor Rick Scott directed the Florida National Guard to honor Peter and two other fallen junior cadets.

Other surviving students honored Peter by boarding buses and heading to Florida’s state capital with a single mission – to urge state lawmakers to take action and consider a sweeping package of gun control laws.

One of their weapons is social media and the powerful hashtag: #NeverAgain.