CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A Myers Park High School freshman was killed while riding his bike Tuesday morning.
Investigators said 14-year-old Drew Wright lost control of his bike on Sharon Lane, near Arbor Way.
On Tuesday afternoon, Wright’s friend, Ryan Lipshay, knelt down and, with a fist full of flowers, offered a prayer to his friend.
“(I) just said we missed him, we loved him (and we) want him back,” Lipshay said.
Students at Myers Park High were shocked to learn of Wright’s death.
“He was only a freshman,” Alex Shinn said. “He had just gotten done with his first year of high school.”
Wright was riding his bike on the sidewalk along Sharon Lane, where garbage cans blocked his path. When his handle bar clipped one, he lost control and fell into the path of a tractor-trailer.
Student Maria Spinello learned about it not long after seeing Wright's seat empty in homeroom.
“There was crying, and everybody was talking about it,” she said.
Outside the school Tuesday, friends said Wright had quickly become a popular member of the school theater group.
“All of our friends -- we were really close with him and it's just really terrible that all this happened right now,” student Dylan Nance said.
As he said his goodbye, reality was still just sinking in for Lipshay.
“For a moment we, honestly, thought it was a joke. (We) just couldn’t believe it,” he said.
Police did not charge the driver in this case.