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Peter Wang, a 15-year-old member of the Junior ROTC who was killed as he tried to help fellow students escape a mass shooting in Parkland, Fla., last week, has been posthumously admitted to the U.S. Military Academy.

Peter and two other freshman cadets, Martin Duque and Alaina Petty, both 14, were also awarded the Medal of Heroism — the highest medal given to Junior Army Reserve Officers' Training Corps cadets.

Classmates and family said that Peter dreamed of attending West Point. The admission to the academy came on the same day as his funeral.

"It was an appropriate way for USMA to honor this brave young man," the academy said in a statement. "West Point has given posthumous offers of admissions in very rare instances for those candidates or potential candidates whose actions exemplified the tenets of duty, honor and country."

Peter was reportedly wearing his gray Junior ROTC shirt when he was killed while holding the door open so others could escape a gunman who fatally shot 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School last Wednesday.


"He saved people's lives," Victoria Downing, one of Peter's classmates, said at his funeral service, 

Crime, Law and Justice

Freshman cadets Peter Wang, Martin Duque and Alaina Petty were given the Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps' highest medal for heroism. Wang, 15, was also posthumously admitted to West Point.

Army awards Medal of Heroism to 3 JROTC cadets killed in Florida shooting

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