Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Family, friends, officers help lay to rest ‘motivated, dedicated, loving’ Metro Explorer

Angel Velasquez Memorial

Leila Navidi

Police Explorers from Arizona attend the service for Angel Velasquez at Trinity Life Center in Las Vegas on Wednesday, August 7, 2013. The 19-year-old Metro Explorer was killed August 1 in a hit-and-run accident.

Angel Velasquez Memorial

Ernesto Velasquez, left, father of Angel Velasquez, and Ricky Medrano, the stepdad of Angel Velasquez, carry the casket out after the service for Angel Velasquez at Trinity Life Center in Las Vegas on Wednesday, August 7, 2013. The 19-year-old Metro Explorer was killed August 1 by a suspected impaired driver. Launch slideshow »

When Angel Velasquez’s father stepped to the lectern this afternoon, he didn’t plan to stay long.

But then Ernesto Velasquez couldn’t stop talking. He talked about Angel’s beautiful smile, their last text-message conversation and his son’s desire to become a police officer.

Angel Velasquez, 19, was killed Thursday in a hit-and-run accident on Sahara Avenue, near Van Patten Street. Metro Police allege a vehicle driven by 29-year-old Jvon Williams ran a stop sign and crossed into the path of Velasquez’s motorcycle.

Tips from witnesses led police to Williams’ residence, where later that night he was arrested on suspicion of hit-and-run and driving under the influence, according to an arrest report.

Today, family, friends, co-workers and community supporters filled the pews at Trinity Life Center to remember Velasquez, a captain in Metro’s Explorer Program for aspiring officers. Church officials estimated 800 people attended the service.

“I told myself I was going to stay strong through this whole event,” Ernesto Velasquez said during his son’s funeral. “But, unfortunately, I broke down a little bit.”

Ernesto Velasquez chuckled as he recalled how his son recently sent him a text message asking for help buying a Glock 19 handgun. Angel Velasquez had scoured the Internet and found one for sale at a gun store in Tennessee — not realizing the impracticality of the scenario.

“I will get his Glock 19,” Ernesto Velasquez said, his voice cracking. “I will frame it. I will engrave his name and his post. He will have it.”

Angel Velasquez joined the Explorer Program at age 16 in September 2011. He quickly passed tests to do police ride-alongs and become a captain in the program.

He easily surpassed his required 20 hours of community service, volunteering at events such as the Every 15 Minutes program, which discourages teens from drinking and driving, said Officer Krista Bullard, an Explorer adviser.

Most Explorers do two or three police ride-alongs a month, but Angel Velasquez did that many each week, Bullard said.

And when asked for his definition of integrity, this is how Angel Velasquez responded, Bullard said: “It means being brave and doing the right thing even if you are an outcast.”

Angel Velasquez also played on a club soccer team and was a member of the Southern Nevada Hispanic Employment Program’s youth council.

“They say a woman wants to marry someone like her father,” said Jacqueline Velasquez, Angel’s older sister. “Well, I want to marry someone like my brother.”

Jacqueline Velasquez challenged everyone at the church to live up to her brother, whom she described as motivated, dedicated, funny and, most importantly, loving.

“I hope it inspires you to be a better person and love one another,” she said.

As a bagpiper led the way, Metro officers helped Angel Velasquez’s father and stepfather carry their son’s American flag-draped coffin out of the church, bound for his final resting place.

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