A 14-year-old boy from Florida who had been a cadet in the Junior Army Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (JROTC) died during a fitness competition.
Knox MacEwen was reported to have died from natural causes after collapsing during an event on Saturday held at Everglades High School, a spokeswoman from the Miramar Police Department (MPD) confirmed to the Miami Herald.
MacEwen had been attending the BCPS JROTC Raider Meet, in which around 700 JROTC cadets from high schools within Broward County were competing to be qualified to compete in the state championships, according to the outlet.
“Knox was a kind-hearted soul, an animal lover, and has been a quiet protector of his Mama who’s been recovering from a mean battle with cancer,” Lauren Milam, a friend of the MacEwen family wrote in a Facebook post on Sunday sharing the link to a GoFundMe page.
Paramedics reportedly attempted to resuscitate the teenager after he lost consciousness and stopped breathing during the event, the MPD said in an incident report.
Officers from the Miramar Fire Rescue Department arrived and took over performing CPR on the teenager. MacEwen was later transported to Memorial Hospital Miramar where he passed away, according to the report.
“Knox was a gift to all who knew him,” Milam continued in her post, adding that his parents, Kevin and Julie are “incredible, humble, hardworking people” whom she is “blessed to call friends.”
Milam continued to write, “while no amount of money will take away their pain,” she hoped to at least “alleviate some of the financial stress as they mourn” the loss of their son.
Since the GoFundMe page was created with an initial goal to raise at least $30,000, more than $60,000 has been raised.
IJR reached out to the Miramar Police Department for a statement but did not receive a response by the time of publication.