ST. SIMONS ISLAND ― Looking back, Mallery Culpepper wishes she had said more to that quiet teenage boy sitting in her economics class during senior year at Glynn Academy.
Just to let him know she was there for him. Someone better than the people he considered friends, who were with him last month at a party that turned tragic.
“I would have stepped up and said something,” she said. “I don’t really like bothering people who are quiet, because maybe they are like me and just don’t want to talk.”
Culpepper was one of nearly 200 people who attended a rally Saturday afternoon in the coastal Georgia community for 19-year-old Trent Lehrkamp, who is recovering after three teens put him in the back of a Jeep and dropped him off at a hospital March 21, according to Glynn County police.
He nearly died.
When Lehrkamp arrived at Southeast Georgia Health Center, he was only breathing six times a minute and his blood alcohol level was .464 — nearly six times the legal limit. Police said he consumed a combination of vodka and antidepressants. His clothes were soaked in urine, he had spray paint all over his body and was bruised on his shoulder, according to the incident report.
Credit: GoFundMe
Credit: GoFundMe
The sunny afternoon of the rally, waves could be heard in the distance on the southern end of St. Simons Island as people showed up to support the teenager and call for justice. The event was organized by Thea Brooks, whose nephew, Ahmaud Arbery, was shot and killed in Glynn County in February 2020. She was seen wearing a T-shirt with Lehrkamp’s face on it, and a necklace that featured a picture of her nephew. The three men eventually charged in Arbery’s death received state and federal prison sentences.
“We’re just here in honor of Trent, to support his family and to let the people on the island and surrounding counties that this kind of behavior is not OK,” Brooks told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Most people in attendance were from the Glynn County area and included young children and teenagers around Lehrkamp’s age. The held signs that read “Justice 4 Trent,” “We love you Trent,” “Together we can end bullying,” and “Hate has no place on SSI.”
With a megaphone in hand, Brooks led the peaceful crowd on a march with chants of “Justice!,” as those behind her replied, “For Trent!”
Credit: David Aaro / David.Aaro@ajc.com
Credit: David Aaro / David.Aaro@ajc.com
Madelynn Grissom, 11, marched with the crowd to a path along the water, and up Mallery Street, passing by restaurants and shops on both sides. With police monitoring, the marchers continued along additional streets before they looped around to the water again and back to a flagpole in the Neptune Park area.
Madelynn, who attended the rally with her family, yelled for justice while holding a poster she said she made after hearing about what had happened to Lehrkamp. She will attend Lehrkamp’s alma mater, Glynn Academy, one day.
Credit: David Aaro / David.Aaro@ajc.com
Credit: David Aaro / David.Aaro@ajc.com
“I just really felt bad,” said Madelynn. “There’s better people out there. Way better people.”
Roughly 11 youths were at a St. Simons house party, where Lehrkamp was seen being sprayed with a hose while slumped over in a chair, interim police Chief O’Neal Jackson said at a news conference Wednesday. Nine youths were at a separate incident involving the teen, and some were seen at both. Photos and videos captured by bystanders were posted to social media, and Jackson said nothing was off the table during the investigation.
The chief said the parents of the teenagers involved could be charged as detectives work to determine how the minors obtained the alcohol and drugs consumed that night. Evidence was still being collected and Jackson said police will interview Lehrkamp again after speaking with him on March 26.
Days before he was dropped off at the hospital, Lehrkamp had come from another party covered in WD-40, vomit, paint, glue and egg yolk, his father told police. And a week before that, the father took Lehrkamp to the emergency room after his son came back with a cut above his eye that required stitches. Jackson said the investigation would take some time because they “owe it to this victim and to his family to make sure we get it right.”
Nearly two weeks after the recent tragedy, attendees at the rally spoke of the need for justice. Some noted how it took 74 days for arrests to be made in the death of Arbery after he was shot in a nearby area of coastal Georgia. They don’t want the same thing to happen in this incident.
“We would like to see justice for wrongdoing,” said the Rev. Jane Page, a pastor at Unitarian Universalists of Coastal Georgia. “Not that we don’t also believe in forgiveness, but in something like that you’ve got to be held accountable. This is a horrible tragedy for our community.”
Credit: David Aaro / David.Aaro@ajc.com
Credit: David Aaro / David.Aaro@ajc.com
Emily Dobson attended school with Lehrkamp from the eighth grade until she graduated from Glynn Academy. She said they became friends when she was an underclassman and would hang out and go to a youth group together.
Dobson said he was a quiet but sweet kid, and described what happened to him as “sickening.”
Credit: David Aaro / David.Aaro@ajc.com
Credit: David Aaro / David.Aaro@ajc.com
“When I found out, I was really angry because not too long ago, one of my friends was killed in a car accident and she still hasn’t gotten justice in her death,” she said at the rally. “So finding out that another one of my friends isn’t getting the justice that they deserve, it’s just really frustrating and irritating.”
In addition to seeking charges for those responsible, the community is rallying behind Lehrkamp, who spent several days in the hospital’s intensive care unit with a lung infection, but appears to be recovering after the abuse, according to reports.
The event showed that the teenager has gained friends from near and far, and are willing to help in any way they can. An online fundraiser to assist with Lehrkamp’s medical expenses has also raised nearly $120,000 as of Sunday afternoon.
“People are going to support him,” Brooks said. “People are going to be there for him through life.”
On Sunday, comments from Lehrkamp were shared publicly through a post on the fundraising page, which stated he was getting settled in a facility outside of Georgia and was thankful for the “well wishes, the love and support that you all have shown to him.”
“He is hopeful that through the support he’s going to receive over the next few months, that he may be back to normalcy. And he states, ‘Justice will be served,’” the online statement added.
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