A crowd gathered Sunday night for an emotional vigil for a 28-year-old man who was killed while returning home on his motorcycle last month, a fatal crash witnessed by his fiancée who was following him home.
A video loop at a nearby home captured the aftermath just moments after a driver hit Joey Loulakis while making a U-turn in the 5400 block of Monterey Road in Montecito Heights.
The man’s newly engaged fiancée, Zaira Regino, stopped, turned on her emergency lights and ran toward him.
“I grabbed his hand. I told him to look at me,” she told KTLA’s Carlos Saucedo. “I said, ‘I love you, Joey.’ He said, ‘I love you, too, Zaira.’”
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Joey Loulakis, 28, a Montecito Heights resident is shown in this undated family photo. (Sandra Loulakis) -
Joey Loulakis, 28, a Montecito Heights resident is shown in this undated family photo. (Sandra Loulakis) -
Joey Loulakis, 28, a Montecito Heights resident is shown in this undated photo. (Erk G via GoFundMe)
While police are investigating the incident as a tragic accident, the 28-year-old’s mother, Sandra Loulakis, said the actions of the woman behind the wheel of the car that hit her son were negligent.
Eyewitnesses said that while she remained at the scene of the accident, she never got out of her car and tried to breathe air. She was reportedly driving the car after its registration had expired and was not insured.
Joey’s family, his mother and father, say they are devastated by the loss.
“It feels unreal,” Brandon Loulakis, Joey’s brother, told KTLA. “I really feel like I’m waiting for him to come home. I’m waiting to get that call from him, ‘Hey, what are you doing, where are you?'” I know that’s not really going to come.
A GoFundMe The event was organized for the family, who are seeking justice for the 28-year-old, and say they are also trying to raise awareness.
“I want to help every mother not have to go through what I’m going through because of neglect,” Sandra said.