Teen saw video of dying Mojave High boyfriend on Facebook

It wasn't through a phone call or a knock at a door that Faith Camir found out her boyfriend had been shot to death next to Mojave High School on Friday.

It was through a video on Facebook, the 16-year-old said Saturday night at a roadside memorial in front of the school where he was shot.

Taylor Brantley, 16, was seen "lying there, fighting for his life," she said with tears in her eyes.

Brantley, who was identified by his family as a Mojave student, died at University Medical Center shortly after the shooting, which stemmed from an after-school fight among a group of 40 to 50 people, North Las Vegas police said.

The group included students and nonstudents, police said Friday.

Police said Saturday that no arrests had been made and that they were not prepared to release a description of the shooter.

It wasn't immediately clear if the video of a wounded Brantley was still up on social media Saturday night.

First responders were called to the school, near near the intersection of Goldfield Street and Honey Locust Drive, about 4 p.m. Friday. School ended on time at 3:06 p.m.

A witness told the Review-Journal Friday that two people started fighting and that the brawl grew before he heard about eight shots ring out.

Christopher Hernandez said adults began running toward Brantley. Some students fled while others stayed, he said.

A couple dozen people gathered Saturday near the intersection where the shooting took place. Roses, teddy bears, and candles decorated the memorial, which was a block wall with "rest in peace" messages written in chalk for Brantley, also known as "Tay Meez."

At one point, a man in an SUV started screaming at the gatherers to get out of the street, which wasn't blocked. The driver suggested Brantley died like a gangster because that's what happens when you "act like a gangster." Mourners shouted insults at the driver and called him "ignorant."

TV cameras and attendees gathered around the small SUV, and a woman appeared to spit at the driver who swiped his hand at her, missing.

People held roses and some broke down on the street crying while others consoled them. Camir cried and cried out about Brantley's death, "Nobody was helping him. He was fighting for his life and you were just standing there while he was dying."

North Las Vegas police, who are working with Clark County School District police, have not indicated a possible motive in the slaying. They questioned several witnesses, including students.

Last year, a North Las Vegas police report obtained by the Review-Journal showed that Brantley was questioned in the Sept. 5, 2014, shooting death of Andrea Lafon, 20.

Police deemed the slaying to be a marijuana deal gone wrong. A Mojave student was charged with murder and Brantley told detectives he had seen the boy, now a 17-year-old senior at Mojave, with a gun when the fatal shot was fired.

Charges against the boy were dropped when a surveillance video from a store showed him buying a drink and candy and wearing a different color shirt than the shooter's description at almost the same time as the slaying.

The video didn't "completely absolve" the boy, police spokesman officer Aaron Patty said in September. However, investigators are not focused on him or anyone else questioned in the investigation as "main suspects at this time."

Camir described Brantley as a sports-loving jokester who liked "making people feel better." He never had a day in which he was "mad at the world" and he always wore a smile, she said. "I still don't know how to feel. He's not gone until I see him in a casket."

Brantley's brother, Paris Crowder, was somber when he described him. "He was a young man growing up trying to be Superman to our little (8-year-old) brother."

"I'm just trying to make sure my family is OK," Crowder said.

A GoFundMe account has been created by Brantley's family for funeral expenses — https://www.gofundme.com/78be2dak.

Contact Ricardo Torres at rtorres@reviewjournal.com and 702-383-0381. Find him on Twitter: @rickytwrites.