Kentucky teen lauded for defending girl from sexual harassment fatally shot

Da’Jon Anthony Hayes-Burr. Photograph: GoFundMe View image in fullscreen Da’Jon Anthony Hayes-Burr. Photograph: GoFundMe Kentucky teen lauded for defending girl from sexual harassment fatally shot Da’Jon Anthony Hayes-Burr, shot by another teenager, had stopped a 45-year-old man from harassing a 12-year-old girl Kentucky ’s largest city is mourning the recent shooting death of a teenage boy who had earned a municipal commendation months earlier for defending a young girl from sexual harassment – and survived being stabbed in the process. Da’Jon Anthony Hayes-Burr, 15, was shot on Saturday night in Louisville’s Shawnee neighborhood, according to authorities there. He was later pronounced dead at a hospital, and police booked a 14-year-old on a count of murder, as the Louisville news outlet WAVE first reported . Police neither named the arrested teen because of the suspect’s age nor released a possible motive in the killing, saying it remained under investigation. But after the local coroner’s office identified Hayes-Burr as the victim in the case, tributes poured in for the boy, who in April had made headlines for protecting a preteen girl from being sexually harassed by a man more than three times her age. As the girl’s mother recounted to the Louisville news outlet WLKY , she and her 12-year-old daughter were leaving a fireworks show when she heard a man direct a sexual comment toward the child. View image in fullscreen Da’Jon Anthony Hayes-Burr. Photograph: GoFundMe Kristyn Stasel told the man that her daughter was 12, she said to the station. Stasel recalled him rejoining, “Never too young to have some fun,” so she began screaming for help and yelling, “Pedophile! Pedophile!” Hayes-Burr heard Stasel’s cries and – with other teenage boys – confronted the man, who was later identified as 45-year-old Vasilis Sakellardis, WLKY reported. Sakellardis allegedly tried to charge Stasel but was thrown to the ground by Hayes-Burr and the other boys. A tussle ensued while Stasel and her daughter kept walking, and Sakellardis evidently stabbed Hayes-Burr before police reportedly tackled the attacker and arrested him. Hayes-Burr later spoke to the Louisville news outlet WHAS after spending one night at a hospital. He said to the station that he never imagined being put in a position like that – but stepped in after realizing “a lot of grown men around … weren’t going to do [anything]”. “So, we had to do something,” Hayes-Burr said. Stasel told WHAS that Hayes-Burr and the others who faced Sakellardis “were raised right”. The Louisville city council subsequently awarded Hayes-Burr a proclamation, saying he demonstrated “extraordinary courage, compassion and selflessness” – as well as “valor far beyond his years” by intervening on behalf of Stasel. Andy Beshear, the Kentucky governor, in May sent Hayes-Burr a letter thanking him for his courage and selflessness – a missive which included a ceremonial challenge coin recognizing the teen’s bravery. In a stateme