Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Family, friends mourn teen killed in crash

Corey Knight remembered as a hero who lived life to the fullest

Corey Knight

Mona Shield Payne / Special to the Sun

Jennifer Knight shares memories of her 16-year-old son, Corey, during his funeral Saturday at Green Valley Christian Center. Corey Knight, a Del Sol High School senior, died in a car wreck Sept. 25.

Corey Knight Memorial

Family and friends remembered 16-year-old Corey Knight Saturday morning at Green Valley Christian Center. He was killed Sept. 25 in a car wreck.

Corey Knight - funeral

Stevie Scott and Chris Johnson, right, write a note on a poster of Corey Knight during his funeral Saturday at Green Valley Christian Center. Knight, a Del Sol High School senior, died in a car wreck Sept. 25. Launch slideshow »
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Metro Police investigate after an SUV struck a block wall Sept. 25 in a residential area near Gateway Road and Rawhide Street, killing 16-year-old Corey Knight.

Corey Knight was described Saturday afternoon as a kind, gentle soul who was full of laughter and mischief.

The 16-year-old, who was killed Sept. 25 when his car slid out of control and hit a wall, was a smart, adventurous teen; an everyday hero who, since his death, has visited his friends in their dreams and told them not to cry.

Knight’s friends and families remembered him today during a two-hour service at Green Valley Christian Center, where he was an active member. Hundreds of mourners gathered to pay their last respects to the Del Sol High School senior who, according to his mother, snowboarded in Lake Tahoe, reunited with his estranged father in Hawaii and played guitar until his fingers bled.

“He lived more in his young life than others twice his age,” Jennifer Knight said of her only son. “He ate up life and slept in between.”

Knight said her son brought her to church, not the other way around. He went on a church mission trip to Ghana a boy and came back a man, she said.

She spoke of how, two days before the crash that took his life, the teen asked to just chat with his mother after dinner. They talked for hours, she said.

“That night was such a blessing to me,” she said. “Not many people get something like that before a loved one dies.”

The teen’s aunt, Lisa Knight, read a posting from a Facebook page established to remember Corey Knight in which one of his friends described a powerful dream. Corey asked her to not cry anymore and to tell his other friends to stop crying. “Tell them I’m OK,” the dream said.

Fatal crash

His aunt made a reference to the crash that killed her nephew. Police said he appeared to be speeding in his SUV on Gateway Road near Rawhide Street and lost control in a gravel portion of the rural road. No other vehicles were involved, and two of his friends, passengers in the car, were injured.

“It’s important to look at Corey’s life and not the last three seconds,” Lisa Knight said. “He did not come here to teach us how not to die but how to live.”

His grandfather Jim Knight described how his daughters and grandson made him want to be a better person. He said that when Corey Knight got his driver’s license, he chose to become an organ donor.

“This boy consciously chose to save another life if something happened to him,” Jim Knight said. “As we stand here, there is probably another person saved because of him.”

The grandfather said he would follow his grandson’s example. “That is the power of everyday heroes, the real heroes of our lives,” Jim Knight said.

Youth pastor Jeremy Howard shared a Bible passage in which Jesus weeps after his friend Lazarus dies and said, “God is with us in our sorrow and mourns, because he loves us.”

“Why Corey?” Howard asked. “I don’t have an answer. What I do know is Corey knew God and Corey is in heaven.”

Jennifer Knight, in concluding her remarks, told his friends that she would always think of them as her sons and daughters.

“My advice to you is to be nice to the person next to you, who might be shy, because that’s what Corey would do,” she said.

Then she added, “Corey I hope you visit me in my dreams.”