The Lake community was shocked last week when it found out that one of its brightest young kids had been killed in a car wreck.
Rising senior Dontavious Towner was killed on Thursday when he lost control of his car and collided with an oncoming vehicle on Old Highway 80 outside of Forest.
News of Towners’ tragic death spread quickly throughout the Lake community.
“I was in the band hall working with some kids when I got a text that Dontavious had been killed in a car wreck,” Lake High School Band Director Mark Davis said. “Then as the day went on, I started to get more and more texts. It was really a tragedy.”
Towner played drums in the band for Lake and was a starting guard for the high school basketball team.
“He played drums for me and was an extremely talented young man,” Davis said. “When it came to band, his gift was percussion. He could play anything that you gave him. He caught on very quick and usually got things on the first try. I was fortunate to have a talented kid like him in the band.”
On Friday morning, Lake held a prayer vigil at the school for students and community members.
“He was well thought of by the community and the kids at school,” Lake High School principal Lee Killens said of Towner. “There were a lot of students that showed up to pay their respects and that says a lot about him. I think that speaks volumes about what his classmates thought of him.”
Towner was also a starter on the Lake basketball team and one of their leading scorers from last year. Coach Eddie Wade said he averaged about 18 points a game.
“He loved basketball, just loved it,” Wade said. “He was a shooting guard for me and worked hard. I was his third coach in four or five years and I do things differently and he was OK with that. I really hate it for his mother.”
Wade said toward the end of last season that Towner had been suspended from playing for three games and decided to quit the team. But it’s what he did afterwards that impressed Wade the most.
“Toward the end of the school year, he came and apologized to me,” Wade said. “If I had been the boys coach next year, I would have let him come back and I wouldn’t normally do that. But he realized he made a mistake, he came and apologized and tried to make amends and I think that says a lot about the young man. He was a good kid.”
Towner was also a member of the National Honor Society and carried a high GPA.
“He was a very smart kid who had a bright future,” Killens said. “He would have left here and went to a four-year college. He was either going to Ole Miss or Southern. He would have been an honors graduate.”
Killens also remembers one of the last times he saw Towner.
“This past week, he brought one of his younger siblings to the school to be tested for the gifted,” Killens said. “He was giving his younger brother advice about how to handle high school and how to stay out of trouble. I was in the library painting and they didn’t know I was in there. I was really impressed with how he was giving him advice as to how to handle school.”
Visitation for Towner will be at Mapp Funeral Home on Thursday from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.
The funeral will be Friday at 1 p.m. in the Lake High School gymnasium.
