Teenager Killed Crossing Street After L.A. Unified Closed All Campuses Because of Terror Threat

Now this is just sad.

At the Los Angeles Times, "Teen killed crossing street after L.A. schools closed over threat was 'awesome student'":

A 17-year-old student was struck and killed by a city service truck Tuesday morning as he was crossing a Highland Park street not far from his charter high school.

The crash occurred after the Los Angeles Unified School District closed all campuses because of a threat sent to several school board members.

The county coroner identified the student as Andres Perez of Montebello.

The teen, who an administrator said was en route to Los Angeles International Charter High School on Coleman Avenue, was crossing the street at Avenue 60 and Figueroa Street at about 7:30 a.m. when the L.A. city street services truck struck him, according to Officer Jane Kim of the Los Angeles Police Department.

Tony Torres, the school's director of recruitment, said that "the decision to close the school came very late. So people were still heading to school."...

Muath Qagi, 28, of Fontana was driving in the area Tuesday morning when he saw something in the road -- a black shoe. And a cellphone. The AAA employee said he saw the fire trucks and ambulances. Someone was in the street.

Police had covered the body by the time he parked and stopped to watch.

He said Perez's mother was near the intersection, screaming: "My son! My son!" and laying on the ground, distraught. She tried to get closer to the body but wasn't allowed any closer, Qagi said.

"She was on the ground, just crying, screaming," he said.

A little ways away, sitting on the curb by the front of the parked truck was the driver, holding his face in his hands and crying hysterically.

The truck driver told authorities he did not see the teen, police said, but immediately stopped after the incident and helped Perez, who was pronounced dead by Los Angeles Fire Department officers.

Clifford Moseley, the charter school's executive director, rushed to the scene along with other administrators just after 8 a.m. Moseley said police were just starting to tape off the street when he got there.

The administrator said he knew the identity of the student but did not want to release his name before the coroner confirmed his identity.

According to Moseley, the teen and his mom had taken the Gold Line train and he had just exited while she continued on to work.

Perez had just been accepted to film school at Cal State L.A., Moseley said.

The charter school is not part of the Los Angeles Unified School District, said Joseph Riser, the school's director of development, but decided to close Tuesday morning because it was near other L.A. Unified schools...

And to think: the bomb threat ended up being a hoax.

You just never know when you're going to go.

More at the link.