A Georgia teen who wasdropped off at a hospital emergency roomlast month after allegedly being force-fed alcohol, spray painted and taped to a chair during a party, is speaking out.
“I’m alive and doing well,” Trent Lehrkamp, 19, said in anexclusive audio message to WSAV. “Just know it’s going to be a long time for me to get over this, through the trauma, but one day hopefully within the next few months or so, I might be back.”
“Justice will be served,” he added.
Barely breathing and unconscious, the teen had a blood alcohol level of .464, nearly six times the legal limit for driving, and was rushed to the ICU,First Coast Newsreports.
Trenton ‘Trent’ Lehrkamp.GoFundMe
He was on life support at one point,11 Alivereports.
He was treated for “a high level of intoxication from a mixture of controlled substances and alcohol,“police said in a statement.
“I’m just glad he survived from this,” Lehrkamp’s unidentified friend told First Coast News. “He was close. He could’ve gotten killed. I hope those kids, they get charged.”
GoFundMe
Glynn County Police said no arrests have been made and Lehrkamp and his family are cooperating with investigators.
“They are very much cooperating and working with the police on this investigation,” police spokesperson Katie Baasen tells PEOPLE. “[Trent] has been interviewed twice. He was interviewed while he was in the hospital. It was after he had come out of being intubated and they have interviewed him again since then.”
Baasen says arrests in the case are “always a possibility.”
“It is going to depend on what evidence is gathered and what charges can be filed per the evidence,” she says. “I know [police] are working with the DA’s office.”
“Everyone wants swift justice, but investigations take time and you need to be thorough,” she says. “They want to get all the information and not just opinions and rumors. And that is part of the process of the investigation.”
Lehrkamp had allegedly been hazed prior to the March 21 incident, according to First Coast News.
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During a second alleged hazing incident on March 17, the teen’s father said his son went to the same house where the March 21 incident had taken place and came home “covered in WD-40, vomit, paint, glue, egg yolk, and spray paint,” 11 Alive reports.
A video and photos of the teen covered in spray paint and being hosed down went viral on social media in one of the previous incidents.
In one of the prior incidents, 11 juveniles under the age of 18 were present, 11 Alive reports.
AGoFundMehas been set up to help support Trent’s family and the medical bills.
source: people.com
