Emma Ruby
The Dallas Morning News
BALMOREHA, Texas — A Keller Central High School student died Monday evening after collapsing during a backpacking trip in West Texas.
John Reid Comita, 15, was hiking with other Boy Scouts at the Buffalo Trail Scout Ranch near Fort Davis when he collapsed. The Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports that the temperature was around 100 degrees at the time.
The Jeff Davis County Sheriff’s Office said Reid may have suffered a heat stroke.
The hikers were in the Davis Mountains where ambulances and other rescue crews could not reach him, Chief Deputy Jerry Walker told the Star-Telegram.
Reid’s father posted on Facebook that paramedics and guides performed CPR for more than an hour, to no avail.
“He hated no one and saw the best on everyone,” John Comita wrote. “A smart loving young man gone too early with so much to offer.”
Reid was a rising sophomore at Keller Central High School and participated in the school’s show choir and men’s chorus.
He was close to achieving his Eagle Scout status when he died, KXAS-TV (NBC5) reports. His father plans to complete Reid’s service project — building a playground at a domestic-violence shelter — with the help of a neighbor.
Reid’s classmates took to Twitter to mourn the passing of their peer, describing him as a “loving, beautiful, and hilarious person,” and a “radiant personality.”
An autopsy will take place to confirm Reid’s cause of death.
His funeral arrangements have not been finalized.
Copyright 2017 The Dallas Morning News
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