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Hours before Arturo Cervantes Romero was fatally struck by a motorist in Redwood City, he was wearing a shark suit at a summer camp that helps underserved teens.
“Willing,” “generous” and “helpful,” Cervantes was a man committed to service — friends and colleagues said. The 36-year-old dedicated his working years to positions at schools and camps for kids of color with the goal of getting them outside.
Cervantes, who met former President Barack Obama in 2012, was a recipient of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), the federal program launched that year, which granted immigrant youth who met certain criteria protection against deportation and the ability to request work authorization from the United States.
Just before 8 p.m. on July 14, Cervantes was in a Jeep traveling southbound on Hudson Street when a white Ford pickup truck sideswiped his car, according to Redwood City police. The collision took place at the 800 block of Woodside Road, just as the Ford was leaving an alley near the Shell gas station.
Friends say Cervantes’ wife, America Gonzalez Bedolla, was driving the Jeep and pulled over following the crash to exchange information. The Ford continued westbound on Woodside Road, police said, and while stopped in traffic, Cervantes left the car to attempt to stop the fleeing truck.
Cervantes grabbed onto the Ford, but the driver accelerated, police said, leading Cervantes to fall and get run over, dying at the scene.
“Pillar of strength”
While Cervantes’ family would not respond to requests for comment, friends and colleagues were happy to share information about the 36-year-old’s life.
Growing up in East Palo Alto and Redwood City, Cervantes “got hooked on being out in nature” in high school after attending a river rafting trip hosted by Sierra Club’s Inspiring Connections Outdoors program, said Gloria Chen, ICO’s San Jose chapter chair.
Then called Inner City Outdoors, the program has worked to foster outdoor equity by connecting youth with limited access to nature, with nature. After his first river trip, which was on the South Fork of the American River near Sacramento, Cervantes became a teenage river raft guide with the organization, Chen said.
In 2012, Cervantes, as a youth of color and Sierra Club representative, was invited to Washington, D.C. to meet Obama and to participate in a week-long symposium focused on the outdoors, Chen added.
Cervantes, who went to Sequoia High School, continued to help Inner City Outdoors for over a decade, including by coaching raft guides during the training week in 2024, Chen said.
Between studying social sciences at the College of San Mateo and Thomas Edison State University based in New Jersey, where he ultimately earned a Bachelor of Arts in 2021, Cervantes held several positions at schools, Cervantes’ 2023 resume indicated.
From 2019 to 2022, Cervantes’ resume shows he worked as the dean of school operations at The Primary School in East Palo Alto, which closed in June. After that, he served for a year as the assistant principal of business operations at Rocketship Delta Prep, a public school in Antioch.
Starting in 2023, Cervantes became the first chief operating officer of Vida Verde, a free overnight outdoor education program for youth from historically marginalized communities. Founded in 2001 by Shawn and Laura Sears, the nonprofit was Cervantes’ last employer, and the place where he spent the morning before the fatal hit-and-run, Shawn Sears said.
As chief operating officer, Cervantes conducted silent observations of the camp to ensure the program ran smoothly. The morning of the crash, Cervantes was nervous that the kids would perceive him as a complete stranger, his coworker Orellana recalled.
One of the staffers convinced Cervantes to wear a shark suit to calm the atmosphere, Orellana said, adding that he agreed and did it with a smile.
“Ever since we heard the news, the camp has felt a little dim,” Orellana said. “There’s just a very apparent energy missing here — a very apparent lack of joy circulating around.”
She said she can’t fathom that “this is even real,” especially because he was supposed to be out of office in the following days. It feels like “he’s just gonna come around the corner,” she said.
In 2020, three of Vida Verde’s leaders were leaving their positions. At the same time, the COVID-19 pandemic and the 86,509-acre CZU Lightning Complex fires, which came within four miles of the organization, threatened to scorch it.
Shawn Sears said Cervantes was paramount to reviving Vida Verde in its “most trying time.”
Shawn Sears underscored Cervantes’ generosity and competence. Skilled as a mechanic, a builder, an artist, Cervantes was a “jack of many trades” and “generous to a fault.” Moreover, he was extremely reliable, consistently showing up for work every day.
Cervantes’ stepdaughter, Naomi Tovar, organized a GoFundMe fundraiser for funeral expenses and recovery support for her mom, Cervantes’ wife. More than 200 donors have contributed over $30,000 since Tovar launched the campaign last Friday.
Tovar characterized Cervantes as “the closest thing I’ve ever had to a father,” in the donation campaign description. He touched the lives of everyone in his path, she said, but most of all, he also lived to bring peace and laughter to his wife and his mother, “Graciela.”
Criminal proceedings
The driver of the Ford, Lazaro Gregorio Chacajlux, 32, surrendered to Redwood City police investigators Wednesday, and was arrested and booked into the San Mateo County Maguire Correctional Facility on suspicion of hit-and-run resulting in death and gross vehicular manslaughter.
The San Mateo County District Attorney’s Office charged Chacajlux with one felony count of gross vehicular manslaughter, one felony count of hit-and-run causing injury and one misdemeanor count of hit-and-run.
Chacajlux appeared in court last Friday with his attorney, Nafiz Ahmed, and pleaded not guilty. Bail was set at $150,000 after a judge denied the District Attorney’s Office request that Chacajlux be held without bail, Chief Deputy Shin-Mee Chang said.
A bail reduction hearing for Chacajlux is set for Friday and a preliminary hearing is scheduled for next Wednesday.
The District Attorney’s Office confirmed that Chacajlux was involved in a separate crash less than a year ago, but does not have any further details at this time.
District Attorney Stephen Wagstaffe said the earlier crash was not referred to his office and that prosecutors did not know whether Chacajlux or another driver caused it.
Less than two months earlier, a driver in a white Toyota Tundra truck fatally struck a 72-year-old woman in a different hit-and-run, police said. The victim, Maria Perez, was hit near Middlefield Road and Beech Street at around 9:45 p.m. on May 24.
Redwood City’s Communications Contractor Jeanne Sullivan Billeci said the two incidents “involved substantially different circumstances, so we do not believe it would be accurate to characterize them as a broader trend.”
