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Family members, classmates and other mourners of slain Connecticut high school lacrosse player James “Jimmy” McGrath came together at a funeral Mass for the 17-year-old Friday morning.
“Our whole body hurts, the whole body of Fairfield Prep hurts, the whole body of Shelton hurts,” the Rev. Brian Gannon said in a eulogy at the St. Theresa Church in Trumbull. “We’ve lost a brother, a native son, and each of us feels pain at that loss.”
Gannon also invoked a line from McGrath’s father, Kevin McGrath, who noted the beautiful weather just days earlier when his son’s Fairfield College Preparatory School lacrosse teammates took the field in their first game after the tragedy, squaring off against Shelton High School, where the slain teen had many friends and where his sister is a senior.
James McGrath, 17, died after he was stabbed while at a house party over the weekend. He was a junior at Fairfield College Preparatory School in Connecticut. (Fairfield College Preparatory School)
“Kevin, you told everybody at the Shelton-Prep game that you felt like Jimmy had interceded and gotten us good weather,” he said. “I think there’s something to that, what you’re feeling, that I hope all of us can feel, is that you are surrounded by Jimmy’s love.”
McGrath died following a fight outside a high school party, just before midnight Saturday. He and three other teens suffered stab wounds in a brawl that involved as many as 25 young males, according to court documents.
James McGrath poses in his lacrosse uniform. (Fairfield College Preparatory School)
Raul Eliah Valle, 16, of Milford, has been charged with one count of murder and two counts of first-degree assault for allegedly stabbing McGrath and others during. Valle is a student at St. Joseph High School in Trumbull, a high school near Fairfield College Preparatory School, a Jesuit Catholic school where McGrath was a junior.
A 16-year-old murder suspect allegedly stabbed Jimmy McGrath outside this home on Laurel Glen Drive in Shelton, Connecticut, where a memorial in the shape of a heart was placed outside. (Fox News Digital)
Additional charges could be possible as investigators continue to look into the parties involved in the fight.
“They were very friendly. The kids are polite and respectful,” Valle’s neighbor told Fox News Digital of the suspect and his family. “This is hard to believe.”
A representative from St. Joseph’s told Fox News Digital that Valle was in good academic standing and had not been in any fights at school before the May 14 incident.
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The Shelton Detective Bureau is still actively investigating McGrath’s killing and encouraging anyone with information about the incident to call the Shelton Police Department at 203-924-1544.
