Friends and family are mourning the loss of a 24-year-old youth counselor who was killed Saturday in a hit-and-run crash in San Jose.
Jose Esparza is being remembered as a young man who overcame being abandoned as a child and later becoming homeless to win a scholarship to UCLA and get a job in his San Jose community where his mission was to help young people in Santa Clara County. Vigils for Esparza began at 8 p.m. every night since the crash and ending Thursday night at the corner of McKee Road and 33rd Street, where it happened.
“Everything that happened – it feels surreal, because we would talk almost every day,” said Prashant Kumar, Esparza’s best friend since high school. “It just feels like he’s going to text me or call me, and ask me if we want to grab lunch or if we want to hang out.”
Loved ones recall him as resilient and determined – someone who believed in giving back to the community.
“The path he chose, his career, to helping young kids that are troubled, that’s all he lived for,” Kumar said. On the day of the crash, Esparza called apartments in Oakland to move closer to some of the foster children he was working with. “That just shows the type of person he was. He wanted to get closer to those kids just so he can have a bigger impact on them,” Kumar said.
Vito Chiala, the principal at Overfelt High School – where Esparza attended and played football – described him as a “great student” who earned remarkable grades but also a “consistent performer” on the field. He was also “always willing to help others,” Chiala said.
Despite the constant smile on his face and his fierce determination, Esparza persevered through tremendous personal challenges. He grew up with domestic violence, and both of his parents left him when he was still young. At the start of his senior year, Esparza was evicted from his home and became homeless. His then high school football coach, who was newly appointed that year, offered Esparza to live with him for as long as he needed.
“A normal person probably would’ve given up,” said Carlo Maningo, a football coach at Overfelt High School, who then lived in a mountain home in Tracy. Maningo said Esparza woke up at 4:30 a.m. to commute to school every day and came back home at 8:30 p.m. after football practice. He then went “right to the books” to make sure he completed his assignments.
After graduating from Overfelt High School, Esparza attended University of California, Los Angeles – his dream school – with an academic scholarship.
“He had every reason to quit on his life…but he used all of that as motivation, and he pushed every single day,” Kumar said. “In his 24 years of life, he did more than some people do with all of their lives.”
Esparza was determined to give back to the East San Jose community that he grew up in, an area that is often perceived as “ghetto,” according to Kumar.
“Nobody expects us to do anything,” Kumar said. “That’s what makes him more special. He overcame those odds.”
Esparza had worked a little less than a year as a counselor at Seneca Family of Agencies, a foster care agency, for children in Santa Clara County. Leticia Galyean, the CEO of Seneca Family of Agencies, described him as being the “first to sign up to help support any youth.”
“It was so clear from the beginning. I met him in our new employee orientation and was really struck by his passion and commitment,” said Galyean. “He was deeply loved by our team. This is just a horrific tragedy.”
Esparza was just a few blocks away from home when the hit-and-run crash occurred. The suspect in a black 2015 Infiniti sedan sped through a red light and struck Esparza’s car around 2:30 am, according to the police. Esparza was thrown out of the car and pronounced dead immediately.
The suspect abandoned the Infiniti and was last seen fleeing on foot toward Anne Darling Elementary School in San Jose. The police are asking anyone who may have any information about the suspect to reach out to Detective Mike O’Brien at 408-277-4654, extension #3527.
Alberto Esparza, the late Esparza’s brother, put up a GoFundMe page and as of Thursday the donations exceeded more than $38,000 of the $40,000 goal for the funeral. He did not feel ready to comment.
“It’s really incredible how hard he worked, how dedicated he was, how bright and inquisitive he was,” Chiala said. “It would’ve been really great to see what he did with his life.”