Family, Colleagues Mourn Volunteer Firefighter Killed While Breaking Up Fight
NEW YORK(CBSNewYork) -- A volunteer firefighter paid with his life after trying to do a good deed.
Justin Speights, 20, was stabbed to death after trying to break up a fight at a New Year's Eve party.
"My son did not deserve this all," Speights' mother told CBS2's Steve Langford.
The volunteer Middletown firefighter was stabbed to death at a party in nearby Crawford.
"He not only lived his life as a hero, but died a hero intervening to prevent others from being injured," Jeff Jaques, Silver Lake Volunteer Fire Company, said.
Distraught colleagues and friends at the fire house where Speights volunteered since he was 16, were not surprised that he had reportedly tried to break up a fight just after midnight, when he was fatally stabbed.
State police said there were about 100 people at the party at the time of the murder.
"Justin was a hero, and now we need someone to be a hero to come forward with information," Jaques said.
A $10,000 reward has been offered for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the killer.
Speights' firefighting brothers and sisters said he was a special young man who would stop at nothing to help, even as a teenage volunteer.
"He would ride his bicycle to fires at a young age with his fire gear on," Jaques said.
Flowers marked the side of the road near where Speights was murdered, as his mother and the firefighters who respected him so much prepare to bury him at the age of 20.
Speights' funeral will be held Friday at Transformation Church in Middletown.