With final exams on the horizon, Donnell Marcus Phelps was all set to finish his freshman year at Fort Valley State University in Georgia.
The 19-year-old from Marshallville had been studying agricultural engineering technology but also found time to manage the university’s tennis team.
And help those in need.
Late Tuesday afternoon he witnessed a man harassing three young ladies. The man was touching these girls in a very inappropriate way, so he decided to step in. However, he was forced to bring fists to a knife fight.
An autopsy showed Phelps was stabbed four times in the upper torso with a pocket knife with a 3.5-inch blade.
“Words cannot describe the pain that we all feel in the Fort Valley State community,” university President Paul Jones said at news conference, offering condolences to Phelps’ family, friends, students and the entire community.
Johnson described Phelps as selfless: “He always gave us hugs, and he’d always check up on us,” she added to the Telegraph.
Donnell Phelps died a hero. His Mom did an incredible job raising an amazing person. God bless this young man for his sacrificial act of bravery. His life matters.
Only 19 years old and died protecting women in a day and age when people will literally be bystanders & shut an eye to someone else being harmed. Beyond brave and this is so heart breaking.
Seth Clark is a Pittsburgh-based artist and designer. Abandoned and collapsing architecture has served as a central focus of his work for over four years. He earned his BFA in Graphic Design in 2008 from the Rhode Island School of Design and has since been awarded two Design Excellence Awards from the American Institute of Graphic Arts, Pittsburgh. His drawings and paintings have shown nationally, most recently earning him Best in Show at the Three Rivers Arts Festival in Pittsburgh and publication in New American Paintings. Clark is a 2012 Fellow of Pittsburgh Filmmakers’ career development program, Flight School. Follow him on Facebook.
“I walk atop our bones every day, get my education in the capital of the Confederacy, and all I’ll have is this diploma and no forefathers to share it with.”
