CRAWFORD, N.Y. —A fire department is offering a $10,000 reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction after a volunteer firefighter was fatally stabbed during a New Year’s Eve party.
ABC7NY reported that as many as 100 people were attending the party when 20-year-old Justin Speights, a volunteer firefighter with the Silver Lake (N.Y.) Fire Department, was stabbed while breaking up a fight. Some party-goers tried to revive him but were unsuccessful.
No arrests have been reported and troopers are asking anyone with information to contact state police investigators.
Speights graduated two years ago from high school, where he was an honor student and standout football player.
“He was a great kid, quiet, helped anybody out. He was himself at home, fun, jokester,” his mother Lisa Speights said.
The party was attended by current and former high school students, but at some point a group of outsiders crashed the party.
“Everybody loved him. Everybody took him serious, because he took his job very serious as a volunteer firefighter,” firefighter Jeff Jacques said.