Richard, Miguel and “Junior” were never apart, family members said. Monday evening was no different.
The three teenagers — who were more like brothers, according to family — were killed in a severe crash in Pompano Beach about 7 p.m. when their BMW lost control, flipped and struck a bus stop and a light pole, according to witnesses and deputies.
Deputies identified the boys Tuesday afternoon, saying excessive speed was possibly a contributing factor in the crash.
Richard Manuel Alcocer, 18, was driving the white BMW south in the 1600 block of North Federal Highway with 16-year-old Miguel Montez and 15-year-old Ruben Baltazar inside, the Broward Sheriff’s Office said.
The BMW struck the concrete curb of the center median, at which point Alcocer lost control of the car, according to a BSO news release. The car then hit an Acura that had been turning out of a shopping plaza at Northeast 18th Street, rotated clockwise, slid across the road, jumped the curb and crashed into a Broward County Transit bus stop, then into a concrete pole and a tree.
Paramedics responded and extricated the three teens from the BMW. They were transported to Broward Health North, where all three were pronounced dead.
The driver and passengers of the Acura were not injured, according to the BSO release. The front driver’s side of the car appeared to have been sideswept by the BMW.
The BMW’s excessive speed “is a possible contributing factor in the crash,” the release said.
Dawn Ickes, 45, and her daughter, Michelle Mele, 21, were sitting on North Federal Highway waiting to turn into the shopping plaza to go to Chili’s for dinner on Monday when they witnessed the crash.
Mele said she saw the white blur of a car coming toward them from the opposite direction before it appeared to hit a curb and flip three or four times in the air across several lanes of traffic, landing by the bus stop. Everything took place in a matter of seconds, the two said.
“All you heard was these major crashes,” Ickes said. “It just kept crashing and crashing.”
‘Always the three together’
Family members recalled the three boys as inseparable when talking to the South Florida Sun Sentinel on Tuesday.
“If you were to go to their house every day, they were always the three together,” said Adrian Alcocer, 20, Richard Alcocer’s cousin. “No matter what … they never once separated.”
Richard’s mother was Miguel’s aunt, according to Isaac Alcocer, Adrian’s older brother. He had grown up with them since he was a baby.
Adrian and their 18-year-old brother, Damian, also grew up with Richard. They lived down the street from one another and spent every weekend together, Damian recalled, playing sports and video games or making videos with doll puppets.
Richard was a hard worker who helped his father, their uncle, with his roofing business, the brothers said.
The brothers also knew Miguel and Ruben. Miguel was “a funny, loving boy” who made everyone laugh, Adrian said, while Ruben, who they called Junior, was a “sweet kid.”
A year ago, Adrian recalled, they were all dancing at Richard’s sister’s quinceañera.
“It kills me to think one year ago we were partying and having fun, being positive,” he said. “And now there’s nothing to look forward to.”
Juan Alcocer, Richard’s father, was at the crash site early Tuesday, and simply said his son and his nephews died in the crash, and that all three teens were students at Blanche Ely High School.
“Mi hijo, mi hijo,” Alcocer said as he cried near the bus stop. “I just want to know what happened.”
