The released audio of a 911 call made in connection to the fatal beating of Ohio 17-year-old Ethan Liming is raising more questions.
Liming was beaten near the basketball courts of NBA star LeBron James’ I PROMISE School in Akron on June 2. Since the incident, three males — Donovon Jones, 21; Tyler Stafford, 19; and Deshawn Stafford Jr., 20 — have been arrested in connection to Ethan’s death.
“We’re at the ‘I Promise’ school in Akron, Ohio,” one of Ethan’s friends says in a call placed at 10:42 p.m. on the night of the incident, Fox News reported. “Our friend just got knocked out. We don’t know what to do.”
“Hey, man. We’re sorry, man. We didn’t mean it,” a voice says to someone other than the operator. The voice sounds like the male friend who called 911, but it’s not entirely clear.
“Is there a fight going on?” the operator asks.
“Uh, there was,” Ethan’s friend responds.
“Okay, are the other people still there?”
“Yeah,” the friend says, as other voices are heard in the background. “It’s okay, though — it’s cool now, it’s cool now.”
The friend then identifies Ethan as unconscious when asked by the operator, later adding, “yeah, he’s breathing, he’s breathing.”
More indiscernible words are said as the call continues, and one person says, “I’m not trying to fight, though.”
The friend tells the operator Ethan is 17 years old right before the call abruptly ends.
After trying to get the friend back on the line, the operator reportedly called the same number back, but got no answer.
Bill Liming, the father of the killed teen, told News 5 Cleveland earlier this month that his son’s two friends, who are black, tried to rescue Ethan while he was still breathing, but were chased and assaulted by the perpetrators, who then “finished my son off.”
“It’s been said that they abandoned Ethan and it’s not true,” Bill said. “They did everything they possibly could to help Ethan. They called 911 to get help. And when Ethan was knocked out on the ground, his two African-American friends tried to pick up his body and put them in the car, to help save his life. He was still alive at that point. He was still breathing.”
“His friends tried to help him and they drove them away eventually — not before calling 911. They called, they tried to get help for him. And when they couldn’t catch the one child that ran across a parking lot, they came back and finished my son off,” the father continued.
“They, as I said, they called for help for my son, but the help did not arrive in time, and they did the best they could to help him when they were there, and it’s just — my heart’s broken,” Bill added.
The father also told News 5 Cleveland that his son was trying to defuse an altercation, which had something to do with two of Ethan’s friends’ horseplay, before the teen was fatally beaten.
LISTEN:
BREAKING: Here is the 911 call made from @KingJames’ school on June 2 in the murder of Ethan Liming pic.twitter.com/nDfEzOXML6
— Jack Posobiec 🇺🇸 (@JackPosobiec) June 18, 2022