Students from Manor, Texas mourn Darrin Loving, who was murdered at school

Darrin Ray Loving had something effervescent about him. He was funny, goofy, friendly and also not afraid to give tough advice; the type of friend that students living their high school lives need and want in their corner.

‘He always made people laugh. He makes you feel comfortable with him,” said Sonita Siah, one of about 250 people who gathered Friday evening at the Manor school district Athletic Complex to honor the life of the 18-year-old student who was killed three times . days earlier in a toilet at Manor Senior High School.

Members of the football team, who were friends with Loving, formed a circle and took a knee on the football field as the sun set Friday, while students, staff and community members gathered around them to remember Loving.

Principal Jessika Hearne, who choked back tears during her speech at the memorial, said Loving “will be deeply missed.”

After a prayer, Superintendent Robert Sormani led the crowd, many carrying electric candles, to the stadium entrance where they placed the lights, along with flowers and other souvenirs.

Some of Loving’s friends who attended the wake said he couldn’t wait to graduate this school year and make his mother proud.

Now his friends, classmates and teachers will have to walk past the spot where he was killed at school every day when classes resume, said junior J’Niya Cyphers, who knew Loving well.

“It’s going to be difficult,” Cyphers said. “I can tell you right now that I don’t want to go.”

Tiffany Hernandez, an English as a second language teacher, has a freshman son on the football team who knew Loving. She said her son described him as “very friendly and smiley.”

“He was just a good-hearted young man,” Hernandez said.

Even for those who didn’t know Loving, his death was shocking, said Susie Jones, whose daughter attends Manor Senior High School.

“I couldn’t imagine as a parent dropping my child off at school and never seeing him again,” Jones said.

During the vigil, Hearne said the school and district are both committed to creating a safe environment for every student.

“Your children can’t learn if they don’t feel safe,” Hearne said.

Disagreement led to Loving’s death

Another 18-year-old Manor Senior High School student, Mac Brown Mbah Mbanwei, is accused of fatally stabbing Loving Tuesday in a boys’ bathroom near a cafeteria and is accused of murder.

Students alerted a school employee to the stabbing, according to an arrest affidavit. The officer argued with Mbanwei, who refused to remove his hands from his pockets when ordered to do so. According to the affidavit, Mbanwei was holding a kitchen knife.

When the officer ran back to the lunch area, he found a student, later identified as Loving, bleeding from multiple stab wounds, according to the affidavit.

The officer administered first aid to Loving until paramedics arrived, according to the affidavit, which said the altercation started in the restroom and moved to the nearby lunchroom.

Loving died at the school at 1:12 p.m., police said. Officials have not said what led to the stabbing, but revealed that Loving and Mbanwei knew each other and were involved in a previous altercation the week before.

Mbanwei is being held in the Travis County Jail and bail is set at $1 million, records show. A judge has ordered a mental health evaluation of Mbanwei, according to a bond release.

Classes at Manor Senior High School will be canceled on Monday.

Fatal stabbings of a student on school campuses are rare. In 2003, 15-year-old Austin student Ortralla Mosley was stabbed to death in an upstairs hallway at Reagan High School (now Northeast Early College High School) – the only time a student was murdered on an Austin school district campus.