3 teens killed in apparent SJ street race identified
SAN JOSE, Calif. (BCN) - The three young people killed in a crash late Tuesday night in San Jose have been identified as 15-year-old Jayleen Ciriaco, 15-year-old Anthony Ramos and 18-year-old Oscar Avila Toledo, according to the Santa Clara County medical examiner's office.
Avila Toledo is also known as Oscar Gonzalez.
Officers responded at 10:53 p.m. to the area of Santa Clara and 22nd streets on a report of a crash and located a gold Honda Accord with major damage and multiple people inside with serious injuries, police said.
The intersection is roughly a mile east of San Jose State University.
Medical crews arrived and pronounced two juveniles, later identified as Ciriaco and Ramos, dead at the scene.
Two other injured victims were transported to a hospital, but one of them, identified as Avila Toledo, later died, police said.
The fourth victim remains at the hospital in serious condition, according to police.
Police said a preliminary investigation revealed the Honda and an Acura were racing west on Santa Clara Street when the Honda lost traction and spun out, striking a pole and spinning into a tree on the curb.
The Acura fled the scene and has not been located.
The Honda was an unreported stolen vehicle out of San Jose on Tuesday, police said.
Ciriaco and Avila Toledo were San Jose residents and Ramos lived in Gilroy, according to the medical examiner's office.
Investigators have not determined if drugs or alcohol was a factor in the crash, police said.
Avila Toledo used to go to San Jose High School and another teen in the crash was either a current or former student at another school in the San Jose Unified School District, district spokesman Jorge Quintana said.
The loss is unbearable for 15-year-old Alex Lopez, who thought of Ciriaco as a sister.
"Honestly I'm in the worst pain right now," said Lopez. "I don't even know what to do anymore. I lost one of my closest friends."
Lopez said Ciriaco was going to take the bus home but instead decided to hitch a ride with friends.
"Don't tell me something happened to Anthony," said Joe Ramos, Anthony Ramos's father. "I said what happened? He died or something? Why are you crying?"
Ramos said his son was staying at the juvenile detention center in Morgan Hill and had been caught riding in stolen cars before.
"Apparently he didn't learn his lesson staying away from this," said Ramos.
Staff members at the schools are offering support to the victims' families, Quintana said.
The district has also sent its crisis team of professional counselors to the schools to help students and staff members support in response to the deaths, according to Quintana.
Anyone with information on the crash is asked to call the San Jose Police Department's traffic investigations unit at (408) 277-4654 or Silicon Valley Crime Stoppers at (408) 947-7867.