Tuesday night, students came together to hallow a place marked by violence. Dozens of students gathered near Parking Lot M near Peterson Gym to celebrate the life of Luis “Lu” Felipe Watson dos Santos, 22.
They came with stories, warm memories and doses of laughter.
“For those of you who knew Lu, you knew he was an energetic and fun individual who was always down to do something, actually anything,” friend Tracy Katelsen said. “He accepted everybody, he was friends with everybody. If he didn’t know you, he wanted to be your friend.”
Friends solemnly held candles and shared fond memories about Santos, first publicly and then in smaller groups. The Parking Lot M sign is now marked by memorial candles and signed cards.
Santos, a Mesa College student, was walking from a party with three friends when they reportedly got into a verbal altercation and then later a physical fight during which Santos and three other victims were stabbed. Santos is also remembered by his parents, Fred and Kathy Santos, as a very upbeat, outgoing and social young man.
According to SDPD Lt. Kevin Rooney, a video of the assault does exist, although it is of poor quality. Rooney went on to say that police did not want to subject family and friends to the video by making it public without a valid reason.
“We viewed the video; unfortunately it’s not of good enough quality for us to release to the public,” he said. “We don’t feel that the video is of a caliber that anyone would be able to recognize the suspects from the video.”
Questions about the attack and the identities of the suspects continue to surround the incident. Rooney said there was no indication that it was a gang-related incident or that the victims provoked the attack in any way. Santos’, best friend, Navid Sabahi, asked anyone with information to call the police.
“Anybody who knows like anything at all, even if you heard of just a fight that same night, anything at all, please contact the police department,” Sabahi said. “The people who did this should be punished. Now’s not the time to procrastinate on things like that so please just come forward as soon as possible.”
Flowers can be sent to the Santos family at Oakmont Memorial Park & Mortuary. The address is 2099 Reliez Valley Road, Lafayette, CA 94549 and the phone number is (925) 935-3311. Funeral services will be held at noon on Saturday, at Saint Bonaventure Church at 5562 Clayton Rd. in Concord. A burial will follow at Oakmont Memorial Park at 1:45 p.m. and there will be a reception at the Santos family home after the burial. Details will be announced at the funeral service.
1 comment:
We had a similar story run last Tuesday about a student dying after alcohol poisoning. There was a candle vigil last night. So we are running a story about it on Monday's paper.
Good job on the story by the way, very well written.
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