A 23-year-old British man vacationing on the Spanish island of Tenerife was beaten to death in a random attack — and his family said he was simply “in the wrong place at the wrong time,” according to a new report.
Michael Lewis, also known as Liam Boland or “Brillo” to his friends, died at the hospital Thursday following the street attack two days earlier on the largest of Spain’s Canary Islands, the Rhyl Journal reported.
Lewis’ aunt Karen Hughes said the circumstances are unclear, but she knows her nephew was randomly attacked when he went to get some food on the street.
Two men were in custody in connection with the attack, and the family has heard that they are local food vendors, according to the report.
“The British Consulate have told us that the two men involved have been remanded in custody without bail on charges of homicide, and that one of them was the proprietor of a kebab stand,” Hughes told the paper.
Lewis was staying in Tenerife’s Adeje region with a group of friends, who remained on the island after the fatal beating, the paper reported.
He attended Rhyl High, studied joinery at Llandrillo College and moved to London two years ago, where he was awarded a scholarship with construction firm Brown & Carroll, according to the report.
“Word’s can’t describe what’s happened,” Hughes said. “He didn’t have a bad bone in his body, he was always the person to step back and walk away.”
Lewis’ friends remembered him fondly in moving tributes on Facebook.
“Here is to the best man I have ever known,” Lewis’ friend Aaron Smith wrote. “Michael Lewis, you truly are an inspiration in my life although I may [have] sadly only just realized it…you are an absolute legend brother and I will never ever forget you.”
A GoFundMe page to cover Lewis’ funeral arrangements had raised about $2,500 by late Tuesday morning.