Two 14-year-old boys were walking home from Abraham Lincoln High School when a Jeep Cherokee careened onto the sidewalk, struck them from behind and dragged them underneath the SUV.
Bystanders pulled the boys out from beneath the vehicle after it crashed into a tree Friday afternoon. The children were rushed to Denver Health Medical Center, where they were pronounced dead just hours later.
“They just didn’t know what hit them,” Denver police Sgt. Robert Rock said Saturday. “They were both knocked out of their shoes.”
Driver Sandra Maul, 64, who received serious facial injuries and broken bones, was in police custody at Denver Health Medical Center, where she is under investigation for vehicular homicide, according to police.
Maul was not under the influence of drugs or alcohol, and police are investigating whether she had a medical condition that contributed to the crash.
“She said she doesn’t even remember what happened in the accident,” Rock said.
Police refused to release the names of the boys, but family members identified them as Jesse Aguirre and Nahn Nguyen.
“He was a gift to us, the glue that bonded us together,” Samantha Nguyen, Nahn’s sister, told 9News.
Boys never saw it coming
At 2:20 p.m. Friday, Ruben Cordova was sitting outside the Columbine Tower apartments smoking a cigarette when he saw two boys walking north on South Federal Boulevard, he said.
“I see them walking this way, then I could see the white of the truck coming at them from behind,” Cordova said. “Then it hit them. It was like she was carrying them underneath the bumper.”
A white 1996 Jeep Cherokee veered onto the sidewalk about 100 feet behind the boys, police said. The teenagers were knocked down, then dragged for about 20 feet until the Jeep crashed into a large tree.
The boys never saw the sport utility vehicle coming, said Cordova, who quickly ran over to help them.
“Their legs and arms were all twisted,” Cordova said. “Neither one was breathing. … It was really terrible.”
The driver was partially pinned by the air bag, he said.
Antonio Esquibel, principal of Abraham Lincoln High School, went to the hospital Friday night to offer support to the families of both students.
One of the boys was pronounced dead at 9 p.m.; the other at 1 a.m. Saturday.
“It’s a sad day,” Esquibel told The Denver Post on Saturday afternoon. “It hurts because you feel all the kids are somehow part of your family.”
The SUV had been removed, but remnants from the accident and the investigation were scattered around Saturday beneath the tree – skid marks on the sidewalk, an empty vial for blood, a white syringe, a rubber medical glove, shards of glass and pieces of white plastic from the truck.
Jesse’s cousin Vanessa Barron, 14, went to the scene in the early afternoon and was quickly overwhelmed.
“These are just kids. Wonderful, beautiful kids,” Cordova said. “I can’t see in the world why this had to happen to them.”
Robert Maul, who divorced Sandra Maul 12 years ago, said Saturday that she was taking multiple medications.
“She was on her way to counseling” when the accident happened, Robert Maul said, adding that their children told him she has broken ankles and wrists.
Two years ago, Sandra Maul was in an accident in which her car hit the rear of another vehicle, her ex-husband said.
Esquibel said district and Lincoln High counselors will meet with students when they return to school Monday. They also will discuss how they could help the boys’ families.
Friday’s accident came a week after Rebecca Bingham, 39, and her two children, 4-year-old Macie and 2-year-old Garrison, were struck and killed downtown Nov. 10 by a truck driven by a hit-and-run driver, who admitted he was drunk.
Larry Trujillo, 36, of Westminster is being held in the Denver City Jail on $250,000 bail for investigation of 11 criminal charges, including three counts of vehicular homicide while driving drunk, three counts of vehicular homicide while driving recklessly and four counts of hit and run.
Staff writer Kirk Mitchell can be reached at 303-954-1206 or kmitchell@denverpost.com.
