After a rollover incident at Westlake High School in Thousand Oaks, in which the driver is accused in a daylong crime spree that included a stabbing, the victim, a 15-year-old boy, has been publicly identified. A wonderful son, brother, and friend, “was a wonderful son, brother, friend. Who touched the lives of those around him,” reads a message on the crowdfunding platform GoFundMe.
The driver may have purposely impacted the victims, including three of Welling’s fellow classmates, who were hurt in the crash on Tuesday afternoon. Flowers and candles were left at the disaster scene as a makeshift monument to Welling. On their way to class on Wednesday, many students stopped to pay their respects.
Damaged in the collision, a nearby bus stop shelter was receiving repairs. The family of the victim arrived at the accident site in floods of tears. The news of her son’s death came to Wesley’s mother, Kelly Welling, from her daughter, who was nearby at the time of the accident. The mother’s birthday was the day of the crash.
“I get the call from my daughter Hannah. There was an accident and he was unconscious and they were doing CPR and they did CPR the whole way to the hospital,” Kelly Welling said. “That is where he passed. By some miracle, my daughter wasn’t standing right next to him because it could have been both of them.”
The events unfolded quickly, according to Hannah, Wesley’s sister. She heard a skidding automobile. The final words Welling spoke to her kid before he left for school were recounted. “I said I’m proud of you, I love you, have a good day, and that was the last thing I said to him,” she recalled.
The links below will take you to other news articles:
- Northern California Property Destroyed as Car Crashed Through Second Floor
- Driver Flees After Crashing Into White Settlement Home
One of the three people that made it out alive was a friend of Olivia Ludwig’s who was still in the hospital. “Her femur is broken and she had surgery last night to repair it,” Ludwig told ABC7. “She’s up now, and she’s OK, but there’s a chance that she’s going to be in a wheelchair for eight weeks.”
“She has so much, so much going for her, and I’m just really upset to have to see that all go down the drain because of this.” Austin Eis, the culprit in the collision, has been identified. The 24-year-old, according to authorities, began his crime spree just 13 miles from the scene of the incident.
Eis, a former student at Westlake High, is accused of stabbing a Walmart worker in Simi Valley. The cops were called after an altercation Eis had with his parents at their Camarillo home. The Thousand Oaks collision occurred soon after that. According to the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office, Eis remained in detention on Wednesday.
My heart breaks for the family and friends of Wesley Welling, the 15 year-old Westlake High School student whose life was tragically cut short in yesterday's horrific events. #ConejoStronghttps://t.co/B3IyzD6bYI
— ASM Jacqui Irwin (@ASM_Irwin) April 19, 2023
On Thursday, he will likely be formally charged with a number of offenses. The judge ordered a $5 million bail for him. “I felt like I’ve been able to be kept in this bubble for so long,” Ludwig said. “And just seeing how easily one person’s bad intentions can injure and hurt so many families, and so many people, really breaks my heart.”
Chief Jeremy Paris of the Thousand Oaks Police Department said, “We all have connections, and it’s very difficult because we know the people here in the community.” “The officers that are on scene, you know, it’s very, very difficult for them.”
Horrible and sad story. We live in such a mean world.
15-year-old boy dies after Walmart stabbing suspect slams into students near Westlake HS in Thousand Oaks. https://t.co/dbIhmcApic
— Tarek Fattal (@Tarek_Fattal) April 19, 2023
Ludwig stated that she agreed with the majority of her classmates that there should have been no school on Wednesday. “I think it’s inconsiderate to the mental health and stability of the students on our campus,” she said.
The online campaign in honor of Welling raised over $118,000 in less than 24 hours as of Wednesday morning. Calvary Community Church in Westlake Village was going to host a vigil later that night.
If you decide to follow us on Facebook, we’ll make sure you’re the first to hear about any major changes.
