A 17-year-old could face decades in prison now that he has been convicted of second-degree murder and mob violence in a brawl that killed another teen at Alexandria’s Bradlee Shopping Center in May 2022.
Cellphone video played in court showed the moment when then 16-year-old Ryan Joseph Vega stabbed an unarmed Luis Mejia Hernandez, 18, in the chest, as Mejia fought other teens, The Washington Post reports. Police found the video while searching Vega’s phone, but attorneys and police did not identify who recorded it.
The stabbing happened as a mob involving 40 to 50 Alexandria City High School students fought at lunchtime on the shopping center’s parking lot on May 24, 2022. Students from the high school often walk to Bradlee Shopping Center for lunch.
Mejia’s killing came just weeks before he was to graduate from the city’s only high school.
Neither teen was part of a gang. Each went to the shopping center because two groups planned to fight, The Washington Post reports.
Vega claimed self-defense, but videos of the event did not back up his story.
“I’m glad we can show the community that the police department did an outstanding job investigating it,” Alexandria Commonwealth’s Attorney Bryan Porter told NBC4. “We were able to get some serious convictions today that bring some accountability to the young man that committed this offense, and maybe that will send a little bit of a warning signal to others that they should not engage in violence at Bradlee or anywhere in the city.”
Vega will be sentenced on September 28. Each count on which he’s been convicted carries a maximum sentence of 40 years.
For more stories like this, subscribe to Northern Virginia Magazine’s News newsletter.
