I was getting ready for bed a little past 11 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 30, when I got a text.
It was an emergency UAlert notification, warning about a hazard on North Euclid Avenue and East Second Street.
I recognized that location, as I received multiple accident alerts from that intersection before. I remember thinking “I hope it was not one of our students.”
It wasn’t - it was three of them.
That night, the University of Arizona lost two of their own: Josiah Patrick Santos, member of the UA Meow Or Never A Capella group, and his girlfriend, KAMP Student Radio general manager Sophia Akimi Troetel. A day later, aspiring lawyer Katya Rosaura Castillo-Mendoza was taken off life support, rounding up the victims number to three.
The three friends were involved in a hit-and-run while crossing a marked crosswalk a few blocks away from campus.
The suspect, 19-year-old Louis John Artal, was also a UA student. The California native was speeding with his Porsche Boxster while under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs.
Artal’s lawyer said his client left the scene because he got scared, went home to his apartment nearby, and called his dad.
After turning himself in the next morning, Artal was booked in the Pima County Jail on a $250,000 cash bond, and was later charged with three-counts of manslaughter and one count of leaving the scene of a fatal injury accident.
City officials said plans for a High-Intensity Activated Crosswalk at the intersection were already underway when the accident happened.
The next Wednesday, the UA community showed up with a full-house at the city council meeting.
Justine Wilkins, a recent graduate, was a friend of Josiah Santos.
“I am here to express my outrage at the City of Tucson and its Department of Transportation, for the negligence that allowed this crosswalk to kill my friend with the help of an impaired driver," she said. "For at least two years, it has been known to the City of Tucson that this crosswalk is lawfully inadequate for pedestrian safety, and yet in the time when I was a student, and in the time since, not a single thing has changed about it.”
Topaz Servellon was also friends with the victims, and highlighted Tucson’s lack of pedestrian safety.
“Council, I really miss my friends," she said in tears. "I wanna use this platform not only to call for the courts to seek justice for my friends to the fullest extent to the law, but also to remind everyone when Tucson was named one of the deadliest cities for pedestrians this past May, statistics like this don’t exist in a vacuum. There’s people behind these statistics.”
A week after the collision, the UA hosted a celebration of life for all recent hit and run victims from the university.
Troetel's family flew in from New York, and expressed how their daughter loved the university and Tucson, which she kept calling “the lovely T”.
Hope Santos said in tears that his son Josiah was planning to propose to his girlfriend Sophia.
The day after the Celebration of Life, the City of Tucson repainted the deadly crosswalk, which faded significantly just after five days.
The memorial site still shines bright at the intersection, reminding every passerby how fragile a human life is.
As for the suspect, the Pima County Jail confirmed that less than two weeks after turning himself in, Artal was released on bond, and his next court appearance is scheduled for Feb. 20, 2026.
This case scarred me deeply as an individual and as a former UA student. It happened close to campus, a place that should have been the safest for all. Not only were the victims of similar ages to me with similar interests, Sophia was sort of my colleague, as she worked for the student radio.
I never crossed a crosswalk the same ever since. Now, every time I do so, I feel all three of them by my side, making sure I reach my final destination.
