Last week, a knife fight in the streets ended with one young man - Levi, a 17-year-old who used to train at my karate dojo - dead. Sadly, he was stabbed by a 13-year old.
Anytime a child dies it is a tragedy, but it somehow hits a little harder when you know him or her. But because he hadn't trained with us in so long, until I found a photo from a karate promotion I'd taken three years ago with Levi kneeling with the group (he's pictured above, second from the left on the bottom), I had no idea that I did know him.
I guess the real tragedy is that a young man - a student who was also someone's son, brother and father - is gone. Rest in peace, Levi, rest in peace.
