waco — Just one day after a man drowned at the Twin Bridges Park at Lake Waco, the friends of 19-year-old Christopher Sharp said they are doing the best they can to heal from his loss.
"The suspense of knowing he was in the hospital was not great,” Long-time friend Stephan Shell said. “And finding out was even worse. To the point I didn’t even have the guts to go up there and see him in the hospital."
Sharp was at the Twin Bridges Park with friends on Memorial Day. According to Waco Police, he swam out past the area marked for safe swimming and went under water. He later died at the hospital.
"He's one of the best people you'll ever meet. He has the charisma and everything,” Shell said.
Colten Smith has been friends with sharp since primary school. All he has left are memories and a few photos stored on his cell phone.
"I’m broken. It feels like a part of me left," Smith said.
Smith said if he didn't have to work on Memorial Day, he would have been out on the lake with Sharp and the rest of their buddies.
"And my life would have went along with him,” Smith said. They were just out there swimming and for some reason, he decided to cross the line."
Sharp was a 2017 graduate of Connally High School. His friends said he spent a year in the Air Force and had a military mind. The schools JROTC made a statement on their Facebook page stating, "he was a kind, loving, respected and much loved young man who will truly be missed by everyone who had the privilege to know him."
Sharp friends said they'll always remember him.
“He was definitely an angel sent down from god for us all," Smith said.
Connally High School Class of 2017 will have a balloon release for Christopher Sharp Sunday night at 7:30 p.m. at the school’s multi-purpose building parking lot. His memorial service is Friday at Connect Church at 2 p.m.