BERKELEY — A vigil Monday night time on the metropolis’s Longfellow Center College allowed a number of hundred individuals share the reminiscences of two younger brothers taken from their group by gun violence.
You can see the emotion when one individual leaned in opposition to one other in greeting, just for tears to freely spill down faces, or when one in all dozens of youngsters abruptly bowed their head and let disappointment shake their shoulders. You can really feel it within the phrases shared by mother and father of kids, college students and lecturers and workers members within the faculty district, and group members heartened and emboldened to honor their premature absence, in addition to accidents suffered by two different younger individuals.
The brothers had been at a celebration about 9:45 p.m. Saturday at a rented dwelling within the 900 block of Apgar Road in North Oakland when somebody entered the home and started taking pictures, authorities mentioned. Relations recognized them Monday morning as Jazy Sotelo Garcia, 17, and Angel Sotelo Garcia, 15.
Two different teen boys, ages 15 and 16, had been discovered exterior of the home and brought to a hospital. They're anticipated to dwell. Police mentioned that each one the victims knew one another and a few of them could also be associated.
On Monday at sundown underneath the flagpole out entrance of Longfellow, Beatriz Leyva-Cutler spoke briefly with others earlier than following a gaggle round to the varsity’s cafeteria on Ward Road.
“I’m a former board faculty board member. I served for 12 years, and something that occurs to our college students and our households in our group, I need to be there,” Leyva-Cutler mentioned.
“I’m right here to recollect, to console, to be no matter assist I can for the household, the varsity, the group.”
That spirit of assist additionally drew a uniformed Berkeley Fireplace Division firefighter to put flowers at a protracted altar laden with candles, hand-written notes and photos of the Garcia brothers.
It additionally led Berkeley Unified College District Superintendent Enikia Ford Morthel to affix faculty board members in addressing Garcia members of the family.
After spending the day at Berkeley Excessive College, Ford Morthel was struck by an altar made by younger individuals within the Garcia brothers’ honor: “I noticed the group coming collectively. I heard tales about Jazy and Angel. I noticed what I solely can know was a lot love on your two infants, that I solely can infer that they had been superb.
“I pray for you, ever since I acquired that decision, and I'll proceed to hope for you for the consolation and the peace that solely God can present.”
Certainly one of Jazy’s classmates, Arya Perez, spoke immediately from his coronary heart about how Jazy’s kindness friendship helped him take care of social nervousness.
“Thanks for speaking to me,” Perez mentioned. “Thanks for throwing issues on the bottom. And you then made me choose them up. Thanks for making jokes with me. You had been like a task mannequin to me. I at all times wished to be such as you the way in which you bought together with so many individuals.”
Two members of the East Bay Dragons motorbike membership, Kim Cloud and Clark Bowdry, shared their shock and disappointment at studying throughout membership members’ weekend go to to Fresno of the brothers’ deaths.
“I've children that grew up right here in Oakland, performed Pop Warner soccer proper right here in Berkeley,” Cloud mentioned. “To see these younger children which have misplaced a life, that doesn’t make any sense in any respect […] , we have now to cease the killing.”
“I’m simply moved,” Bowdry mentioned. “It takes rather a lot to maneuver me, rather a lot. , I’ve by no means seen so many tears in so many kids’s eyes. We have now to alter now. We don’t need to repeat this. We don’t need to preserve going to vigils.”
Right here for tonight’s 7 pm vigil for Berkeley Excessive college students Jazy Sotelo Garcia, 17, and Angel Sotelo Garcia, 15, slain in a tragic weekend taking pictures in Oakland pic.twitter.com/yuDipVNv4M
— George Kelly (@allaboutgeorge) October 4, 2022
Contact George Kelly at 408-859-5180.