Friends and family are mourning the loss of a teen who died after falling from a ride at Orlando’s ICON Park.
He was visiting for Spring Break from his school, says WPBF.
Tyre Sampson’s father told WESH this is all a nightmare.
“I wish I was there to tell him I love him. That I’m sorry. For him to lose his life. So young, and I wish it was me,” Yarnell Sampson said. “I want to know what happened to my son. I want to know why my son is in a white bag, having to get shipped back home. He walked there. Why he can’t walk back? I want answers from everybody. Who all was involved in that?”
He said the teen was a charismatic young man who did well in school and was sociable.
Yarnell Sampson told WESH he found out that his son died when he saw the video of the fall spreading online.
“It felt like somebody hit me so hard in my stomach. I just lost, I lost, lost wind. And the pain behind it could never be taken away, and sorry’s not gonna take it back and no monies, no nothing in the world to replace the young man. And it’s just sad, a young man’s bright future was taken away from him over a ride, an amusement park,” Yarnell Sampson said.
Sampson was a football player. His coach said he had a bright future.
“He was a high recruit as an eighth grader. Tyre could have gone to any high school in St. Louis that he wanted to go to. That’s how promising his future was,” A.J. Jones said. “I think he was the next big thing coming out of St. Louis. And he was putting in the work.”
The family does now have a legal team that includes attorney Ben Crump and has called for the ride to be shut down permanently. There is no word on any immediate actions they plan to take, but they said in a statement last night they will fight to get answers.