GLENELG, Md. - Friends surrounded Steve Dankos' sister Monday, as she for the first time visited the site where her brother died early Sunday.

They hugged and sobbed and struggled to know what to think and say.

"It's just now that we know it's real, it is a lot harder today," said Morgan Wynne, who was among the River Hill High School senior's best friends. She hopes he's remembered as a good football player and a good guy.

"He was just the most amazing guy in the world he didn't deserve to die this way," Wynne said. "He was so cool."

Crisis counselors were sent to River Hill High School, but students say many of Dankos' friends stayed home.

"He was a great guy," said Maya Dillard. "He didn't deserve to die like this."

"Everyone wanted to be his friend and his mom loved him," added Meredith Borkowski.

Dankos, 17, was with his buddy and football teammate Thomas Erdman at 3 a.m. Sunday, riding in a pickup truck driven by Erdman's 22-year-old brother, David. The brothers were in the cab and Dankos was in the bed of the truck when it veered off the road, hit three stone fence pillars and flipped.

Dankos was pronounced dead at the scene. Thomas Erdman was treated and released from a hospital. His brother David has been charged with drunk driving and vehicular manslaughter.

Responding officers wrote in charging documents that David Erdman smelled of alcohol and failed a field sobriety test.

Nancy Davis is Steve's mother. She wants kids and parents to know drunk driving took her son.

"{A}ll I can say is you hug 'em. And if you have a doubt -- if you have a doubt -- you don't let them out the door," Davis said. "I'm not a bad parent but these are teenagers and sometimes they make bad decisions and there is not a thing you can do. I lost my heart. I don't know how you get through that one."

The Erdman family declined comment on the case.

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