Dallas

Friends Remember Wylie HS Student Who Died Jumping into Lake Lavon

Funeral for teen held Thursday afternoon at the East Plano Islamic Center

The body of a teen reported missing after jumping into Lake Lavon was recovered by search crews early Thursday morning.[[384045751,R]]

Ibrahim Malik, 18, was among a group of six teens who jumped from a railroad trestle into the lake Wednesday night, officials said.

The Nevada Volunteer Fire Department said they were called when one of the teens didn't surface after making the 30-foot jump into the water.

By Thursday afternoon, friends and family were saying goodbye at Malik's funeral services. He would have been a senior this fall at Wylie High School.

"There's no replacing him – we lost a friend, we lost a brother. We lost a lot," said friend and classmate Devan Koskol. "He was the most caring person you'll ever meet. He would never hurt a soul."

Search crews have recovered the body of a missing teen at Lake Lavon early Thursday morning.

The death of a young friend is one of those moments, where you grow up quick. 

"It humbled us," said Malik’s friend Jake Jenkins. "Yeah, we're sheltered high school kids and we don’' see things like this happening, but death is very real and it will happen to anyone."

"We were really close," added friend Mohammad Khan. "It really hurts me of course. We kind of grew up together. It's just very unfortunate, very tragic."

Khan worked with Malik at a bakery and says Malik decided to start handing out day-old bread to the homeless on the streets of Dallas.

"And it was his idea," said Khan. "I never even thought about that. I used to throw stuff every day and he was the one who said we should take this somewhere and it will help somebody put food on the table. So he was a good person, for sure."

Friends say they'd been to the area near where Malik died before.

"Just nobody expected anything like this to happen," said Jenkins.

The search was localized near County Road 486, just west of Nevada, and continued after dark with boats using sonar to try and locate the teen. Texas Game Wardens confirmed his body was found at about 12:45 a.m. Thursday.

Wylie High School Principal Virdie Montgomery confirmed the teen's identity Thursday morning and said the school, which is closed for the summer, would be opened Thursday at 6:30 P.M. for a public vigil.

Malik's funeral was held at 2 p.m. Thursday at the East Plano Islamic Center with burial to follow at Restland Cemetery in Richardson.

Montgomery said school administrators and counselors would be on hand at Thursday's vigil and that anyone wanting to gather and pay tribute were welcome to attend.

Crews were searching Lake Lavon late Wednesday for a child who jumped into the lake from a bridge and didn’t resurface.
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