Teen Boy Dies After Being Hit by Car While Riding Electric Scooter to Friend’s House

“The last call that my aunt and him had was, ‘Mommy, I got home from my field trip,’ ” the teen’s cousin, Karen Torres, said

NEED TO KNOW

• A California teen was hit and killed while riding his electric scooter over the weekend
• Angel Roman Mendoza Lopez, 13, was on his way to see a friend in his neighborhood after returning home from a field trip
• “Our entire family is reeling from this profound and sudden loss,” his cousin, Karen Torres, wrote in a GoFundMe

A California family is grieving after a young boy was hit and killed while riding his electric scooter to a friend’s house after school. 

Karen Torres is speaking out after her 13-year-old cousin, Angel Roman Mendoza Lopez, died after returning to his Pomona home from a field trip on Friday, April 17, she said in a GoFundMe and interview with ABC affiliate KABC.

“He was a good kid,” Torres told the news station, adding that Angel had “a golden heart.”

“The last call that my aunt and him had was, ‘Mommy, I got home from my field trip,’ ” she added. “And he told her, ‘I love you.’ “

On Tuesday, April 21, the Pomona Police Department confirmed the incident happened at approximately 2:29 p.m. local time in the 1600 block of S. San Antonio Ave.

Angel “rode off the sidewalk and entered the roadway” just as a vehicle “was heading southbound on San Antonio Ave.,” leading to the crash in which the teen “sustained life-threatening injuries.” 

“He used to be in the cadets academy. His goal was to one day be a police officer, and he loved, loved soccer,” his cousin told KABC.

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Torres said the accident happened “the one day he wasn’t wearing a helmet.”

Pomona police officers and crew members with the Los Angeles County Fire treated Angel at the scene before he was transported to a hospital where the 13-year-old died on Sunday, April 19.

Signs in the area showed the speed limit was 25 mph. Torres told the news station that she did not know how fast the car was going, but police said the driver did remain on the scene after the child was hit and was cooperative with authorities. 

“It is currently unknown whether speed, distracted driving or impairment contributed to the collision,” police said. 

In the GoFundMe, Angel was remembered as “truly one of a kind — a remarkable young man whose unwavering faith illuminated every life he touched.”

Though he was young, his loved ones said the child “lived his life with a beautiful devotion, serving God and embodying kindness, joy and a gentle spirit that made him beloved by all.”

“Our entire family is reeling from this profound and sudden loss, and we are struggling to come to terms with a future without his bright spirit among us,” Torres wrote, adding that his immediate family is “enduring unimaginable grief.”

His cousin added that his family is holding “onto the unwavering belief that Angel is now at peace in heaven, and we find solace in knowing that we will be reunited with him one day.”

The investigation remains ongoing.