Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Family, friends mourn three teens

The disposable cameras Clara Guardado bought almost weekly for her two teenage daughters were taking a toll on the mother of five's budget.

It's now money she considers well spent, as the photographs that cover walls throughout the family's home are a large part of how she remembers Angelica and Raquel Jimenez, who along with their best friend were killed Monday in a crash at a Las Vegas bus stop.

"Their big thing was taking pictures," Guardado said. "They had to have pictures. If I let them, I would buy cameras once a week. It was hard to keep getting them. They always had a camera in their purses."

And Monday morning was no different. Guardado has not yet brought herself to develop the photos captured on the camera inside Angelica's purse, a somber task she plans to perform today.

Family and friends of the girls, who died Monday alongside their best friend, Reginald Williams, remembered the trio Tuesday as inseparable, even in death.

"They were best friends. He called them 'my girls,' " said Michelle Williams Price, whose 16-year-old son, Reginald Williams, died in the crash.

"They were like this," Price said, crossing her fingers. "You couldn't separate them."

Williams and Angelica Jimenez, 14, and Raquel Jimenez, 16, died Monday morning when a sport utility vehicle driven by 34-year-old Veronica Schmidt jumped onto and along a sidewalk, demolishing a bus stop at Smoke Ranch Road and Rock Springs Drive. Samantha Gail Allen, 36, also died in the crash.

Friends and family of Williams were trying Tuesday to come to terms with the sudden death of those at the bus stop. Price remembered the son who would kiss her at the door every day when he said goodbye.

"I keep waiting for him to come home," she said.

She and her family live in an apartment at the Budget Suites of America on Rancho Drive. They say it was there that Williams met the Jimenez sisters a couple of years ago and they became best friends.

A friendship blossomed between the two families, who often treated each other's children as their own, Guardado said.

Reginald even accompanied the girls on a trip to Disneyland in December and attended a concert in February by the MB Riders, their favorite music group. she said.

"They considered him their brother and he considered them sisters," Guardado said. " ... He (Williams) was a laugh a minute. He was so cute. He was from Alabama and would say things that we didn't know what we meant."

The Jimenez sisters' family moved to an apartment complex and began attending Cimarron-Memorial High School. Williams transferred from Cheyenne High School to CMHS and had lived with the Jimenez sisters for three weeks while his family prepared to move to the same apartment complex, Price said.

The teenagers were likely skipping school to spend the day together when they were hit, Price said. The area where they were struck is around the block from the school and they were hit about 15 minutes after school had started.

Neighbors and friends brought food and flowers to comfort Williams' family Tuesday evening as they watched television coverage of the crash. The teen's backpack, recovered from the accident scene, sat against the wall.

For Sabrina Palafox, the girls' older sister, is still trying to explain to her 3-year-old daughter what happened to her aunt.

"She cried herself to sleep asking, 'where are Angelica and Raquel,' " Palafox, 29, said. "How do you explain to a 3-year-old?"

Now the pencil drawings Raquel, an aspiring artist, took such pride in and the clothing and crafts Angelica, whose sense of humor often led brevity to tense family situations, are prized possessions, she said.

Williams's stepfather, Darryl Rutledge, said he was working as an electrician on a job not 100 yards from the crash when it happened.

"I went and looked at it but I never knew my stepson was lying there," Rutledge said.

The families said it was hard to understand why the driver had so far not been charged in connection with the deaths. Police have said Schmidt apparently had a medical problem that caused her to lose control of her vehicle.

Until she checked out Tuesday, Schmidt had been staying at the same Budget Suites as the Williams family. Rutledge said he used to see her around the complex.

Alina Banks, 18, had been a friend of Williams and his girlfriend for a year and a half. She visited his family Tuesday night and said the two used to put music on and dance together in her bedroom.

"That (Banks) was the only girlfriend he ever had. He only ever had one girlfriend," his mother said as she began to cry.

Price said she and the Jimenez family plan to have a joint public memorial for the teenagers Thursday.

"They were always together," Price said. "They left this world together and they're going to be together at the end."

Visitation is set to be held from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. Thursday at the Thomas and Jones Funeral Home, 310 Foremaster Lane in Las Vegas.

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