On Saturday afternoon, eight days after losing 7-year-old Jeremy Perez in a parking lot accident at a neighborhood grocery story, his family and members of the community where the boy so vibrantly lived his life gathered at the beach to remember him.
Jeremy was remembered as a happy-go-lucky student who paid attention to those less socially adept than himself. He was remembered as a loving son, an inspiring little brother, and an irrepressible sprite of a neighbor who made himself known and well-loved throughout a wide swath of territory near his North Redondo Beach home.
“He had a personality bigger than most people, ages 20 to 50,” said Joshua Perez, Jeremy’s 19-year-old brother, speaking to the roughly 70 people who gathered for a memorial service on the beach near 28th Street in Manhattan Beach. “He had so much panache and so much life, and energy just to be exuded, and it just seemed to rub off on everybody. He was just such a strong, caring, loving individual, more than I’ve ever seen in anybody. It’s just really incredible that a child can have such amazing potential and just such pure intentions.”
“I mean, he never wanted to hurt anybody,” Perez added. “And I know that he is up there looking down on us, and he wants all of us to smile because he doesn’t want anybody to cry. I love you Jeremy. You will always be my only brother.”
Jeremy was also remembered as a boy who saved the life of a 4-year-old girl only weeks before his death. According to family members, Jeremy was swimming in Canyon Lake when he came to the rescue of a little girl who had lost her footing in the shallows and fallen in above her head. Jeremy, who was wearing his lifejacket, took hold of the girl and paddled her to shore.
“He just said, ‘I got her! I got her!’” said Rhiannon Perez, Jeremy’s 10-year-old sister.
Afterwards, Jeremy simply continued to play.
“Jeremy was the kind of kid who would shrug off something like that, like, ‘What else was I supposed to do?’” said neighbor Shannon Adamson. “So it wasn’t this big fantastic deal. It was just Jeremy – just a day in his life….As I’ve been saying, he lived more in seven years than I’ve lived in 39.”
Adamson was there on the day Jeremy died. His mother, Trina Goodwin, had just started working at the Albertsons grocery store a half block away. Jeremy had already developed a regular schedule to visit her, and on that Friday morning he had one simple intention as he bicycled towards the store.
“He was going to kiss his mom,” Adamson said. “That is just the way he was…He would go over there on her first 15 minute break, and he’d walk her back.”
The accident
Jeremy never made it to the store. As he pedaled into the store parking lot, his path intersected with an Albertsons delivery truck that was apparently backing into the loading dock on the side of the store. Police reports indicated that Jeremy had taken a shortcut across the loading dock area, one frequently used by pedestrians in the neighborhood.
Neighbors, however, disputed the notion that the shortcut is part of the loading dock area. Erik Marshall, a close family friend, said that police descriptions of the accident reported in news accounts misrepresented the area where the collision occurred.
“If you look at the point of impact that day, it’s about four-and-a-half feet from a parking space,” Marshall said. “Why not call it the parking lot area?”
Marshall said the store’s loading dock arrangement is “faulty” and urged immediate changes, including an addition to the existing wall between Mathews Avenue and the store. The wall runs the length of the store but has a short gap – where Jeremy bicycled through – that enters the parking lot and loading area. On the day of the accident, Marshall said, a large Sara Lee truck was parked in one of the parking spots, potentially blocking both Jeremy’s and the Albertsons driver’s view.
Marshall said the store should also always have “spotters” guiding trucks into the bay.
“It’s ridiculous,” he said. “Now they have somebody out there backing people in, and that is what they should have had from the beginning. They should have foreseen something, because they make pedestrians go that way. It took a tragedy to have this happen.”
Neighbor Jeffrey Nielson said the store also needs clearly defined pedestrian walkways.
“Albertsons caters to pedestrians in that area, and there is no walkway for pedestrians,” he said. “If you are coming from Artesia, you are going through the parking lot. If you are coming from Mathews, you are going through a parking lot. There is no other way in there. They make it sound like Jeremy was just riding through the parking lot when every single person, my kids included, goes through that parking lot.”
Albertsons spokesperson Lilia Rodriquez said that no decisions had been made on implementing such changes until the specific circumstances of the accident are determined.
“It is still being investigated,” she said. “That is ongoing.”
Sgt. Shawn Freeman of the Redondo Beach Police Department said that he understood the heavy emotions running through the neighborhood regarding Jeremy’s death. But he said that the store’s blueprint indicated the area where Jeremy was hit by the truck is the loading area.
“It is considered a loading dock area,” Freeman said. “To me, it’s splitting hairs – only because an accident still occurred between Jeremy and the driver of the truck. A 7-year-old boy died, so of course everyone is upset. Whether I call it a parking lot or a loading dock area, it does not change the unfortunate happenstance of the accident.”
“Is there a wall there? Yes,” he added. “Is there a break in the wall from the sidewalk on Mathews? Yes, there is…The accident is still under investigation.”
A lawsuit will likely ensue. Marshall said that within days of the accident, five different attorneys had already contacted the family. But he said the most immediate concern is that steps be taken to ensure no such accident can occur again.
“It’s negligent. It’s a clear cut case – everybody sees that,” Marshall said. “But no amount of money is going to bring a child back. It’s not about a lawsuit, it’s not about money. It’s about the change they should make to this parking lot right now to prevent this from happening again….If anything good comes out of this, it’s doing something – let’s put that wall up and make it go higher and make sure nobody else gets hurt.”
‘He got into everything’
At Saturday’s memorial, Jeremy’s “aunty and godmother all rolled into one,” Linda Sue Swadener, called him “my little man” in an emotional, homespun eulogy.
“You brought so much joy and happiness to all that knew you, and even to those who didn’t know you very well, you showered them with your thoughtfulness and kind ways, because that is the kind of little man you were,” Swadener said. “I will forever be able to look into the heavens and see your smiling face shining down on us. You really did make the world a better place, and I know you will be making changes to make sure we all live in a better, safer world…Skate on and ride like the wind and love on forever.”
“He was special, and he will always have a place in my heart,” his sister Rhiannon said. “It doesn’t seem real, like a bad dream I want to wake up from, but I know Jeremy is in a better place now. And he is looking down on us, and I’ll pray to him every night.”
His aunt, Rhonda Trujillo, remembered trying to keep up with the inexhaustible little boy.
“He was always into everything,” she said. “You had to watch him all the time. He was just a great kid and he loved everything….The hardest part is going to be every holiday that comes. We have to get through it.”
Swadener, who Jeremy and all the kids in the neighborhood called “Masue,” said he liked to put his endless supply of energy to a task.
“He used to love working,” she said. “He’d always work for a dollar. Any job you wanted – you got to support your local ice cream man.”
Jeremy’s mother, Trina, did not speak to the gathering as a whole, but hugged those closest to her and shared both in the tears and laughter punctuated the memorial.
Pastor Danny Santa Cruz of the Victory Community Clinic offered comfort to the family.
“My words, whatever I will share, are inadequate,” he said. “I know that…You know, we live in these bodies for a temporary period of time. We all know we have an appointment one day when we are going to leave this earth. But we are saddened when we hear of the loss of Jeremy at such a young age.”
The pastor urged the community to keep the family in their thoughts.
“A little note, ‘I am thinking of you,’ would be very appropriate,” he said. “Bring the family a meal, it would be wonderful. This is where we need to wrap our arms around them in love as a community.”
Joshua Perez thanked the community on behalf of his little brother for the outpouring of love and for “keeping his spirit warm.”
Marshall said that one neighbor walked up to him shortly after the accident and handed him a $1,000 check for the Jeremy Perez Memorial Fund, which has been established to help the family pay for the expenses related to Jeremy’s death.
Marshall and his sister, Adamson, lived next door to Jeremy and his family. They said that Jeremy had become inseparable with her autistic four-year-old son, Jamie, who looked up to Jeremy like a big brother.
Adamson said that her son initially took Jeremy’s loss pretty well. “He said, ‘Jeremy is in heaven, but that’s okay, because Rhiannon is my new best friend and Jeremy is okay because he is in heaven,’” she said. “But then yesterday he said, ‘When I get run over by a truck, then I will go to heaven and be with him.’ That is not what you want to hear your child say.”
But Adamson also said Jeremy had left a lasting gift with everyone who knew him. She recalled an incident a couple weeks ago that lingered in her mind, particularly as strangers made posts at various news websites placing blame on the neighborhood for allowing kids to run too freely. She said the kids frequently played in a parking lot near their home, and one day Jeremy and Jamie had a big water fight.
“So the next morning, everything was still wet – their towels, their shoes,” Adamson remembered. “And so they are out in the parking lot, and I said, ‘I am going to get some waters. I’ll be right back, don’t turn on the faucet.’ I come back and my son and Jeremy are completely drenched, and Jeremy is actually holding the hose on him. I said, ‘What are you doing? You guys are soaking wet!’ And he goes, and he wasn’t condescending at all, ‘You grew up like this, having fun. Don’t you want your son to grow up the same way, having fun?’”
“And I was like, ‘What a burn.’ You burned me. So he taught me something really important, I think. Beautiful. They got very wet that day.”
Madison Elementary teacher Amy Santa Cruz recalled an encounter with Jeremy the summer after he finished kindergarten with her. She was “out and about” in Redondo Beach when she heard exuberant shouts coming from a car across a parking lot. She turned to see Jeremy hanging out the window, yelling, “Hey Ms. Santa Cruz! Hey Ms. Santa Cruz! It’s me, Jeremy! Do you remember me? It’s Jeremy!”
“And I said, ‘Jeremy, of course I remember you. How could I forget,’ And one thing I wanted to say is I will never will, and I don’t think any of you will, either,” Santa Cruz told the memorial gathering. “Vibrant, full of life, exceptional. Could see the social piece when another child needed help, could see the injustice…It’s a gift.
“I think if you believe in God, Buddha, Mohammed, Universal Life – whatever you believe in, that spirit will continue.”
Donations to the Jeremy Perez Memorial Fund can be made at any of the 11 Wells Fargo Bank branches in the South Bay in care of bank vice president Jamal B. Shofani and to account number 5180865940. The family is also asking for anyone who may have witnessed the accident or similar incidents to contact jeremyperezmemorial@yahoo.com. RBPD traffic investigator Officer Jeff Mendence can be reached at 310-379-2477 ext. 2721. ER
