A Columbia teen has died nearly eight weeks after he was shot at a New Year's Eve party in Severn, police said on Thursday. The college football player was hit by stray gunfire at the party and had been paralyzed from the waist down ever since.

Lawrence "Larry" Aaron III, 19, died from his injuries Thursday at Frederick Memorial Hospital, according to the Anne Arundel County Police Department. Detectives are now investigating the shooting as a homicide, and the suspect remains unknown. Aaron, who graduated from Oakland Mills High School in Columbia, was a sophomore at Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia, where he was on a full football scholarship.

His teammates visited him at Frederick Memorial Hospital on Wednesday after learning that he had suffered complications from treatment as a result of the shooting, according to West Virginia newspaper The Herald-Dispatch. "Marshall University lost a very special young man today, and it has shocked and saddened us all," Marshall University head football coach Doc Holliday said in a statement on Aaron's death.

"His loss will be felt in every corner of our program," Holliday added, "and his spirit will never be forgotten." Following a release from a physical rehabilitation facility earlier this month, Aaron had been at the hospital in Frederick since Monday when he developed blood clots, according to WBAL, which reported he was taken off a ventilator on Thursday.



At the time of the shooting, police said Aaron was attending a New Year's Eve party with friends.

"...my son stepped in front of his girlfriend to shield her, and one of the bullets got him," Aaron's father told WBAL.