14-Year-Old 'Friend to All' and Star Athlete, 18, Killed in Florida Nightclub Shooting

It was supposed to be a "safe place."

But what started out as a teen-centric party in a Fort Myers, Florida, nightclub ended early Monday in bullets and blood and the death of a 14-year-old and an 18-year-old. Authorities have detained three persons of interest in the case and announced at a Monday press conference that more persons of interest are at large.

Sean Archilles, 14, who had an infectious sense of humor, and 18-year-old Stef'an Strawder, a star basketball player with plans to play in college, were the two slain victims now being mourned by friends and family.

Stef'an Strawder: 'Why Him?'

Strawder's mom, Stephanie White, had few words in the wake of his death.

"Why him? Why Stef?" White told the News-Press soon after the shooting, which police said was first reported about 12:30 a.m. local time Monday, as Club Blu's party was breaking up.

"No matter where he went, everyone invited him into their home like he was their own," White said of her son. "People loved him."

White said Strawder, a rising high school senior, died hours after the shooting. He was hit in his right shoulder after, White heard, he knocked his cousin out of the way, she told the News-Press.

The shooting cut short a promising athletic career at Lehigh Senior High School: Strawder was recently named an all-area boys basketball player of the year by the News-Press, and friends took to social media to reminisce about the example he set as an athlete.

"He was like a brother to me," Jar'Tavius Martin told the News-Press of Strawder. "I looked up to him. He always inspired me every day. He always had a smile on his face."

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The shock of his loss touched many in the community.

"He's a great kid," one coach, Mike Bonilla, told the News-Press. "There aren't enough words in the dictionary to describe that kid. He loves everyone."

Bernard Edwards, father of two of Strawder's teammates and a family friend, said "it really hasn't hit us yet."

"I met [his parents] at the hospital," Edwards told the News-Press. "It was a sad, tragic, somber situation. And they're just going through it, like we all are.

"Stef was a special kid. He was a nice kid. He was one of the good ones."

Sean Archilles: 'A Friend to All'

Like Strawder, Archilles loved basketball, his father, Jean Archilles, told the News-Press.

Archilles said his son "liked to make people laugh."

"He's a funny kid," he said. "He's always joking."

Sean's principal at the Royal Palm Exceptional School echoed those comments in a statement to PEOPLE, saying, "Sean was the kind of young man who could brighten any room with his outgoing personality and contagious smile. He was a friend to all and will be deeply missed by his Royal Palm family."

When a local reporter told his father that Sean was so young when he was killed, Jean said, "I don't know what ... a 14-year-old ... can do to somebody."

Local Fund to Help Families Impacted by Shooting

More than a dozen other people, some reportedly as young as 12, were injured in Monday's shooting, with two still in critical condition, authorities have said.

The father of one victim, who survived with a graze across his chest, tells PEOPLE, "My heart goes out to the other victims that didn't make it or that are still fighting for their life."

(PEOPLE could not immediately reach either the Strawder or Archilles' families for comment.)

A local fund has been opened by the Southwest Florida Community Foundation, in partnership with the Fort Myers government and local United Way, to support the families of those affected.

The state attorney general, Pam Bondi, also pledged financial support at a Monday afternoon news conference.

"We are here to help you," she said.

• With reporting by JEFF TRUESDELL