Family of slain Vallejo high school student holds vigil

VALLEJO, Calif. (KGO) -- Police in Vallejo are searching for a killer as family and friends mourn the loss of a high school student.

Max Rusk, a 17-year-old student, was fatally shot near his high school Thursday.

Police say they do not have any suspect information to release, or a motive in the shooting.

The Rusk parents held a vigil Thurdsay night, in the exact spot where their son died and begged his young friends to stop the violence. Dozens of people came out with candles and flowers to honor Rusk. He was shot and killed along a canal on Ascot Parkway, just below his high school.

Just last week, he was posing for pictures with his girlfriend on prom night.

"So I told him, 'Babe you have to come with me, it's my last year' and he's like, 'OK babe, I'll try everything I can,'" said Rusk's girlfriend Naomi Zermeno.

Zermeno says Rusk scraped together the money and made it happen.

His parents say this vigil is the first of 14 they will hold, something they're calling 14 Days of Peace.

"It's like a nightmare in the day time, you hope you can wake up from. Never. Max was a good kid. Very good kid. Got robbed of his life," Rusk's parents said.

Vallejo police locked down two schools while searching for the suspect who pulled the trigger.

"We had our entire police department out there, including several K9 officers. We asked for the help of the CHP, they sent a fixed wing airplane and helicopter to assist in the search," said Vallejo police Lt. Kenny Park.

Loved ones Thursday searched to make sense of their sudden loss.

"I thought I would see him today, but I guess I'll just see him in my dreams," Zermeno said.

Anyone with information on the shooting should call police.