Around 400 community members gathered at Los Cerritos Park on Thursday to mourn the loss of three Long Beach residents, Joseph Awaida, Raihan Dakhil and their 3-year-old Omar Awaida.
The Awaida family was struck by a driver who was under the influence on Halloween night, near the site of the vigil. They were only 100 steps from their condo, according to the Long Beach Post.
The ceremony began with a trio of musicians, and then various community and family members spoke, saying prayers and expressing sentiments of how beloved the family was to their community.
“I brought my nieces over because the night that it happened, they were standing in the same corner. They saw the whole thing,” community member and attendee Daniel Echevarria said.
“One of my nieces stayed at home, she’s 15, she didn’t want to relive it. I’m here for the support for my nieces and of course as a resident of Long Beach. I was just shocked that it happened- for this to happen is tragic. You never expect this to happen to you or to someone else, but you never know.”
Long Beach City Mayor Robert Garcia spoke to the captive and emotional audience, “I’m incredibly proud for how you’ve come together as a neighborhood and as a city to stand with this family. It has been a reminder that this is a loving and great community.”
“This city is 100% behind this family and we will do everything we can within our power to ensure this family is taken care of and that we honor their three amazing lives, not just here but in the things they loved and gave themselves to.”
Los Angeles County Board of Supervisor Janice Hahn addressed the family of the victims, “We stand with you tonight and we pledge to stand with you every day going forward.”
“We’ve had some tragedies in the last week,” Hahn said, referring also to the October 29th mass shooting that killed 3 and injured 9.
“Tragedies that do remind us you can be in a friend’s backyard at a birthday party, or doing a tradition that everyone has engaged in, trick or treating, and your life can be taken away from you. It’s a tragedy that reminds us to love each other a little more. There’s so much bitterness in the world right now. Maybe this will remind us to be kind.”
Hahn shared an anecdote from her last weekly board meeting, “We in the county of Los Angeles have an opportunity every Tuesday when we end our board meeting, we can end it in honor of someone. I ended our meeting in the memory of Joseph, Raihan and Omar. We want the family to know that in a county as large as 10 million, we stopped for a moment to remember these three beautiful souls.”
Megan Kerr, a board member for LBUSD Board of Education said, “In my 46 years [in Long Beach] I can’t remember such sadness in our city. It feels so heavy in the air that it seeps into our skin, with the light that has gone out with these three beautiful people. They made differences in the lives of thousands of children around this district in the last 15 years. I’m inspired by the love.”
The ceremony concluded with a call from the priest to give somebody next to you a hug and squeeze their arm.
“We’re all family,” said one man to another, amongst a crowd who were wiping away their tears during the night of healing and dedication to the family lost.
The driver, identified as Carlo Navarro, was initially released on bail after the crash, has since been rearrested on Tuesday due to unrelated misdemeanor charges from an earlier suspected crime, according to reports by Press Telegram.
“We can not and will not tolerate impaired driving. As of today the suspect remains in custody and I promise you we’re going to do everything we can to make sure he’s held accountable for his role in this tragedy. Your presence really makes a difference to all of us. It’s a reminder that if we as a community can come together, we can get through anything,” Chief of Long Beach Police Robert Luna said at the event.
Ahmad Awaida, Joseph’s uncle said “I feel sad. They’re going to be missed. They were a beautiful family.”
Faisal Dakhil, Raihan’s father, said, “With the support of the community here, I feel some joy. The love is outpouring, we feel it. We smile and we thank our two children in their departure, they brought the community together, and they make us proud that the community all loved them, they must have done something.”