Teen who crashed into school was target of police investigation

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Kim Powell / WINK News

17-year-old Wesley Sauveur’s father was proud of his son by all accounts—he was an accomplished boxer and a smart student. But the teen was troubled inside.

“I want them to know he was a good kid, he listened. He tried very hard,” his father said. “I tried to get him help. He was on medication and I think that’s what happened; he just can’t take it anymore.”

The day before Wesley drove his dad’s car into Evangelical Christian School, law enforcement confiscated several electronics from their home. Wesley’s father says they were looking for child pornography.

“He’s a child with problems, that’s why I took him to the doctor to get help,” Wesley’s dad said. “I figured he was on the brink of doing what happened.”

He says the boy suffered from Impulsive Control Disorder, something that he says runs in their family.

But Dr. Laura Streyffeler, a mental health counselor, says this disorder is not cut and dry.

“Like a trigger, once that button is pushed, they just automatically go off,” she said. “It’s like the wires just kind of go…in the brain and completely go off and the adrenaline starts pumping and they don’t have a lot of control in that moment.”

“There might’ve been other things going on because there always is,” she adds. “Traumas, tragedies, things like this aren’t one dimensional.”

Wesley’s father says the teenager used to run the track around ECS, but other than that, he doesn’t know why he chose this school, or at the time of day where several people were in the area.

“There’s not much we can do,” he said. “I’m just happy that his life is the only life that was taken and not other children or any school employee or any bystander.”

The Evangelical Christian School announced it will be reopening Friday.

The school released a statement saying they will excuse all absences for those who need more time to process the tragic event that took the life of Sauveur.

WINK News/ Kim Powell

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