Friends, family and loved ones gathered in East Brunswick Sunday afternoon to mourn a 13-year-old boy who died after falling through thin ice on a pond near the town municipal complex.

Yousef Khela was walking on the ice with two friends last week when it shattered. The two friends were able to get out and ran for help. Firefighters and police officers formed a human chain to try to get Khela out of the water, but he later died at the hospital.

At the vigil, friends and classmates lit candles, placed flowers and put up pictures of Khela. They remembered him as a caring person and loving friend.

“Yousef was, not a friend, not a best friend. He was a brother. He was kind, carrying and loving,” said Benjamin Awadalla, one of Khela's two friends who survived the fall into the icy pond.

"He was always a big joy and he would always be there when we needed him,” said friend Mariam Masr.

Khela was one of three people who died last week in separate incidents of falling through the ice. David Tillberg, 14, died on the same day as Khela when he fell through the ice in Carteret. Two days later, a man fell through the ice at Monksville Reservoir in Passaic County. He died the next day. His name has not been publicly released.