‘It can happen to anyone,’ says father after crash that killed teen son
The soccer trophies, some several feet tall, collected dust in Amaru Sinay’s room. He will never add another to the collection.
Sinay, 17, died March 8 after the 2003 Toyota Corolla in which he was riding crashed into two parked vehicles. The driver, 19-year-old Abel Baires-Lorenzana, told Las Vegas police he was driving drunk, according to his arrest report.
Baires-Lorenzana and two other juveniles ran away from the crash, the report alleges. Sinay died at the scene from blunt force injuries to the head.
“He has many friends who have come by, given their condolences,” his mother, Vanessa Sinay, said Thursday. “We make sure to tell them to at least honor their friend: Do better, stay in school. It could have been our son driving, too. We’re not holding anything against anybody. We just want them to see this and change. We just want to them to understand that they lost their friend and if they keep on doing this, it could be them.”
Vanessa Sinay, 39, and her husband, 42-year-old Gerardo Sinay, said they didn’t know Baires-Lorenzana, whose charges include DUI resulting in death, reckless driving and failure to stop at the scene of a crash. The suspect is being held on $100,000 bail at the Clark County Detention Center and is scheduled for a preliminary hearing on Monday.
“If it was up to me, I’d tell the judge, ‘Don’t press any charges,’” Gerardo Sinay said. “I don’t know what they were doing. To be honest, I don’t care anymore, because my son is gone. He left having fun with his friends. It was just an accident, and it can happen to anyone.”
Amaru Sinay was named after his father’s favorite singer, Tupac Amaru Shakur. Amaru Sinay aspired to be a rapper, like the Los Angeles-based musician who was fatally shot in 1996 in Las Vegas. He often told his parents that his name was already famous.
The boy played soccer for more than half of his short life, his parents said, and his dad coached the team as it won trophies in Bakersfield, California; Lake Havasu, Arizona; and local tournaments.
Gerardo Sinay stopped coaching almost three years ago when their youngest child, Israel, was born. Gerardo Sinay said that’s when his older son, the third of four children, started hanging out with a different crowd.
Amaru Sinay ended up in the juvenile detention system and spent six months at Spring Mountain Youth Camp, his parents said. He was released on March 4.
“He just wanted to make sure we were good before he left,” Gerardo Sinay said of the few short days they lived with their son before the crash. “He made sure I was a good person before he left and a better father for the little one.”
Israel is now 2½. Two weeks after the older child’s death, Gerardo Sinay said he’s trying to be home more to be present with his family.
“Right now I want him to rest in peace,” the father said. “He’ll always be in my heart.”
Contact Sabrina Schnur at sschnur@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0278. Follow @sabrina_schnur on Twitter.
