SAWTELLE, LOS ANGELES (KABC) — A vigil was held Sunday night to honor a 31-year-old man who was struck and killed by a hit-and-run driver while Rollerblading in the Westside neighborhood of Sawtelle.
The collision occurred Friday around 8:38 p.m. in the 2100 block of South Bundy Drive near Olympic Boulevard, according to the Los Angeles Fire Department.
Witnesses told police the driver of a black Dodge Durango SUV was traveling west on Olympic when he struck Jonathan Gonzalez, who was also heading west on Olympic near Bundy, police said.
The suspect drove away from the scene after briefly stopping, according to police.
Gonzalez died at the scene.
“He was en route to the Santa Monica Friday Night Skate where I was that night,” said Dan Benveniste, a friend of the victim. “He never made it there. He was skating there, I think, from West Hollywood. It’s beyond tragic.”
Friends and supporters gathered at the site of the collision Sunday evening where a special memorial was created featuring new and used Rollerblade wheels signed with condolences and messages like, “Skate on friend. You’ll never be forgotten.”
Gonzalez, a talented skater from Chile, had just moved to Los Angeles a few months ago but was quickly welcomed by the Rollerblading community.
“He had a very friendly, happy personality,” said Benveniste. “He was more than willing to show all his tricks and teach other people how to do it. He just had an extremely kind, happy persona.”
Gonzalez’s sister, Catalina Aravena Gonzalez, spoke out during an interview and said her brother was living in Indianapolis when he decided to move to California. She said he wanted to “experience new things.”
Gonzalez, speaking in Spanish, said the news of her brother’s death was sudden.
“I couldn’t react,” she said. “My daughter was crying because she heard the conversation. She was like, ‘What happened to my uncle?'”
She said her brother was extremely passionate about music and had dreams of becoming a singer. He even had two auditions set up next month, she said.
He was one of five siblings.
When asked how she wants her brother to be remembered, she said “for his passion for everything he did.”
“If he fell, he would get back up. He could be doing a Rollerblading trick or a complicated jump, and he didn’t care. He would fall and he’d get right back up,” she said.
“He would tell everyone, ‘If you fall, get back up.'”
Meanwhile, those who have skated the streets of L.A. for decades can’t recall an incident like this.
“I’ve been in L.A. for 25 years or so, and this is the first fatality we’ve ever had,” said a skater named Jenny. “We’ve had people hit by cars, I’ve been hit by cars, we’ve all been put in danger.”
For the tight-knit Rollerblading community, Gonzalez’s death is a sobering reminder of the dangers of sharing the streets with millions of drivers.
“It’s something we always battled with,” said Jenny. “For a lot of us, it’s transportation, and people see you on rollerskates and they think you’re just out … having a good time, and the reality is it’s transportation.”
The suspect, who was identified only as a man in his 30s, was taken into custody Saturday morning.
The incident remains under investigation.