Feature Photo By: Caroline Smith – Above is a selfie that junior Nathaniel Estes took, obtained from his Facebook account. Estes, commonly known by his nickname Peewee, lost his life in a tragic shooting last month. 

On Wednesday, March 6th, Rangeview lost one of its own: Junior Nathaniel Estes, also known as Peewee.

Around 10:15pm on March 6th, the Aurora Police Department was called to the Town Center at Aurora on East Alameda Avenue. It had been reported that someone was stumbling around the parking lot and that someone was later identified as Peewee. According to the police, this 16-year-old boy had been shot, and later died at 3:20am in the morning on March 7th because of his injuries.

Peewee didn’t go to Rangeview for long, but he left a lasting impression on the people he met and was friends with.

Here are some things that friends and teachers of Peewee had to say:

Sophomore Lesly Chaves:

“When I first met Peewee, it was through one of my friends and right away he was such a great guy. We were close, but not super close. We would see each other in the hallway and we’d be like ‘Hey.’

I just feel like we gotta stop the violence — it’s just so messed up how a 16-year-old could just die like that… I mean he had a whole life ahead of him — he was beginning to leave his past behind him and start something new. Honestly, he was such a great guy- he was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

Sophomore Sheenah Rakotovao:

“Me and Peewee met through Facebook. He hearted my picture, and I hearted his and then he hit me up. After that, we started talking for the summer and I heard he was moving to Rangeview, so then we started hanging out. I didn’t even really hang out with him like that because I didn’t see him and I didn’t really have that many friends. Then my friend, Christelle, she moved from Gateway to Rangeview and then she started talking to Peewee as friends. They got close and I started to hang out with Christelle and because of that, I got closer with Peewee.

We were talking relationship wise, but then after a while, we stopped talking. We were still cool though because he came here- I still saw him, we were still friends. We didn’t really talk a lot after he left Rangeview.

He was just getting his rapping career started and already posting music on Soundcloud. He barely got started. Peewee had no drama- I know when he was here at Rangeview he had some drama, but after he left, he was laying low…he didn’t have drama with anyone and was just cool with everyone. He was always on Snapchat recording his songs and after that, I just hear that he gets shot… It was just really shocking like I still can’t even accept the fact that he is really gone. I keep thinking he’s going to hop back on snapchat and make new songs.”

Mr. Yoder, Nathaniel’s English 11 teacher:

“Nathaniel was a quiet student, but he was always really nice and respectful towards me. Even though I didn’t know him that well, I knew he was a good kid. As teachers, it’s easy to get a read on students and, even though we don’t often know you guys personally, it’s easy to get a sense of the kind of people that you are.

I can honestly say that Nathaniel was a good kid. Like I said, he was always really nice and approachable. He asked for help and when I’d go over to him on my own, he was always open and willing to talk to me. He wasn’t standoffish, which usually a lot of students are and he never gave that vibe, he never gave me that vibe. Looking back now, I really appreciated that about him and could certainly use some more of that in my everyday.”

Freshman Sa’Kai Tran:

“I miss him a lot. It’s different now that I can’t talk to him, even though we didn’t talk every day- we still never went this long without talking. He was so funny and I miss all of our memories, and all of our arguments. Even after our arguments, we were still good and there was never any bad blood between us. I just miss him- I miss his energy and all of his happiness.”

Senior Sheilah Rakotovao:

“I only knew him because of Facebook. We are Facebook friends, but I did see him around the halls. I also knew him because he knew my sister, and they were really really close.

I only talked to him once- it wasn’t an actual conversation, but I remember assisting him on a joke on my sister. We were just laughing it up and when I heard of his passing I cried because he was just a little baby, you know? For him to pass was sad and it wasn’t something he deserved.”