Friday, Aug. 3, 2007
Friends and family came together for solace and support Thursday night and to celebrate Esai Lopez, a 17-year-old Gaithersburg teen who died after being struck by a hit-and-run driver near Derwood on Tuesday.
For more than two hours, 70 people cried, laughed and held each other near Redland and Muncaster Mill roads, where the rising senior at Magruder High School was hit as he crossed Redland Road with two friends.
Lopez, who lived in the 8500 block of Snouffer School Road, was airlifted to the Baltimore Shock Trauma Center, where he died Wednesday.
His friends remembered Lopez as an outgoing teen who loved to cook, sing and write poetry.
‘‘He didn’t have problems with anybody,” said 16-year-old Ashley Graham, who helped organize the memorial and who started a MySpace page in Lopez’s memory. ‘‘Right now, it’s unbelievable. I’m really missing him. It’s really not hit me yet that he’s gone. He was everybody’s good friend.”
An hour into the vigil, Lopez’s brother, Jose, who had just returned from Baltimore, called for silence. For more than five minutes, the mourners pressed around a small memorial of flowers, candles and scrawled good-byes.
Police describe the car that hit Lopez as a silver, newer-model, four-door BMW 5 series.
Witnesses described the driver as a white man who stopped after the collision, then fled.
Anyone with information — witnesses to the collision or car mechanics who encounter a BMW with front-end damage — should call county police at 301-279-8000 during evening hours or 301-840-2345 during daytime hours.
