‘My heart is broken’: Vigil held for Greenville Co. student

GREENVILLE COUNTY, S.C. (WSPA) — Dozens of people gathered to honor the life of the Greenville County student who tragically drowned in a pond during the school day.

A vigil was held Friday for eight-year-old Lionel Ramirez Cervantes.

According the Greenville County Sheriff’s Office, Ramirez Cervantes ran out of his classroom at Bell’s Crossing Elementary School Thursday morning. He was found dead in a nearby pond hours later.

“My heart is broken,” Raymond Smith said. “I pray for the young man and his family.”

Those who gathered at Friday’s vigil laid balloons, flowers, candy and Spiderman dolls at the entrance of the school for Ramirez Cervantes. His mother said Spiderman was one of his favorite superheroes.

“His mom was telling me how unfair she feels this is,” Traci Fant, the organizer of Freedom Fighters Upstate, said. “She wants justice for her son.”

Cervantes lived with autism, according to GCSO. Some who attended the vigil wore shirts that read, “Autism is my super power.”

Smith, who lives across the street from Bell’s Crossing Elementary School, said he heard the school’s alarm ring around the time Ramirez Cervantes went missing, though he said the alarm did not ring for very long.

“Just think, if the alarm was ringing at least longer, then someone would have heard it,” Smith said. “They would say something’s going on at the school, and everybody would have been looking. They say, ‘If you see something, say something.'”

The Greenville County Coroner’s Office ruled Ramirez Cervantes’ death as an accidental drowning.

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