A New York City high school football player is facing charges of manslaughter for choking his mom’s ex-boyfriend to death after he reportedly witnessed the man attacking her in their apartment early Monday.
According to the New York Daily News, 18-year-old Luis Moux, who lives with his mother in the city’s Bronx borough, was in his bedroom at 4:30 a.m. when his mother, Lorena Sesma, 37, and her ex began arguing in the hallway outside the apartment.
Sesma retreated into her apartment as the situation apparently escalated, but the man, identified as 43-year-old Stanley Washington, followed her inside and began beating her.
Moux, who is an offensive lineman on the Grand Street Campus High School’s football team, came rushing to his mother’s aid, trying to pull Washington off his mother. As the teen tried to get the man off of her, he wrapped his arm around Washington’s neck, ultimately strangling the older man.
Sesma had reportedly passed out briefly after the incident but woke up to find her son standing over her ex. Moux was taken into custody, but officers are still working out whether the teen acted in self-defense.
“It’s not crystal clear,” a police source said. “It’s not cut and dry. There was a battle going on back and forth. It could be self-defense, but that hasn’t been decided yet.”
According to the New York Post, Washington had a long criminal history that included 26 prior arrests. Police also said that they had been to the apartment several times to deal with domestic disputes.
“He’s a school kid, a good student not involved with drugs or hanging out with bad people,” neighbor Angel Nives said of Moux to the Daily News. “He loves playing basketball and football with his friends over in the next building. When I heard the news, I didn’t expect it to be him, but he was right to defend his mother.”
Read more at the New York Daily News and the New York Post.