Maryland Father Killed Protecting His Son From Bullies

A Maryland father is dead after three teens and two adults showed up at his house on Friday demanding to fight his 14-year-old son.

The fight first broke out at Brooklyn Park Middle School, and the gang reportedly came to finish it at Christopher Michael Wright’s house, WBLA TV reported. The 43-year-old told the assailants that his son would not be going outside to fight them. Wright’s fiancée, Tracy Karopchinsky, said the group threatened to come inside and take him. She heard the group tell her fiancé that he had to go outside and fight in his son’s place.

His three children were all home at the time, and a neighbor’s video camera caught the incident on camera.

Wright suffered a traumatic brain injury.

“I was at Shock Trauma, and initially, my dad and I tried to go onto the camera to look, and the first video that comes up is my 12-year-old son screaming, ‘Daddy, Daddy, Daddy,’ and running out of the house into the street to go help his dad. And I couldn’t watch anymore after that. I just couldn’t,” Karopchinsky told WBAL News.

Wright died on Saturday.

“Just looking at the damage that was done to him, that wasn’t just punching that did that. Like, there’s no way that punching did that. The damage was done before the ambulance ever took him away. I mean, he’d had a seizure. It was done. There was nothing that the hospital could do,” Karopchinsky told 11 News.

The school confirmed the initial fight and is working with Anne Arundel County police.

A candlelight vigil is being organized in Wright’s memory.

“They didn’t just ruin our lives. Their lives are going to be changed forever. Their parents’ lives are going to be changed forever, and nobody thinks about that just from a fight,” Tracy Karopchinsky said. “It is everywhere, and somewhere, we as parents are failing these children as parents. It’s not the school’s responsibility. It’s our responsibility.”

The violent crime rate in Anne Arundel county is  452.7 per 100,000, according to USNews. The national average is 204.5 per 100,000.