Drew Esquivel memorialized at Healdsburg vigil

If you ask the Healdsburg community about Andrew Esquivel’s family, you’d learn about his parents, Andy and Sue. You’d hear about his two younger sisters, Elisabeth and Emma. But at a vigil held in his memory Friday night at the Healdsburg Plaza, it was clear his family stretched far beyond the boundaries of blood.

Close to 400 people gathered Friday night to remember Esquivel, holding candles, hugging, crying, laughing. Nearly everyone who spoke described him as a best friend, a brother, a surrogate son.

The 21-year-old was killed in Brooklyn on July 16 when an off-duty New York City police officer accused of drunken driving crashed an SUV into him.

The 2013 Healdsburg High School graduate was in the city for his summer away from school at MIT, interning at a software engineering firm. He and a group of friends were exiting the Bedford Avenue subway stop in Brooklyn at 3 a.m. when Nicholas Batka plowed into them. Batka, who was fired by the department Wednesday, has been charged with manslaughter and driving under the influence. Two other off-duty officers in Batka’s SUV have been stripped of their guns and badges, the Associated Press reported.

A handful of Esquivel’s friends and mentors spoke to the crowd Friday night as slide shows flashed onto a projector screen and paper bag lanterns flickered in the darkening summer sky. On the lanterns were messages.

“You already mastered this world my friend, best of luck in the next one,” read one.

A pair of girls walked around carrying a basket filled with black rubber bracelets, and passed them out to those gathered in the crowd.

“Too good for this world,” they read, with Esquivel’s name on the inside and his birth and death dates printed on the back in white lettering.

Wyatt Hoagland was the first to speak. Like so many others Friday night, he called Esquivel a brother.

“I think what set Drew apart from most people was the fact that he would always go out of his way to make you feel welcome and accepted,” Hoagland said. “It didn’t matter if you had two friends or 200 friends, he’d be right there. ... That’s the kind of person he was. He brought light into the vast darkness of the world.”

Up next went Dom Merlo, Esquivel’s best friend and high school wrestling teammate.

“From coast to coast, Drew imprinted himself on our souls,” he said. “I love you, Drew. Thank you for the lessons, brother.”

Nellie Lozinto, 20, stood on the side of the stage, a clipboard gripped tightly in her hands, as person after person approached her, wanting to speak. She dutifully wrote down each name, keeping track of who would speak when.

Lozinto knew Esquivel in high school. The two were both politically active - Esquivel started Healdsburg High’s Young Republicans Club, and they would always play the other’s devil’s advocate, she said.

“He’s always been a little more right, and I’ve always been a little more left,” she said, smiling, a strand of pearls around her neck. “It was always a back and forth. ... It’s very hard, I think for everyone to take a hold of this situation, and I think right now I’m probably the one who’s the most levelheaded. This is how he would have wanted me to be.”

People flew in from all over the country for Friday’s vigil and a memorial service planned for 1 p.m. today at Healdsburg Community Church. They included about 15 of Esquivel’s Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity brothers, some of whom he was rooming with in New York.

Eli Gentry, 22, grew up living next to Esquivel, but the two had grown apart - different friend groups, different interests.

“You know when you’re a kid, and you’re afraid of the dark, and you think there are people in your closet and you want your dad to check under your bed? I’ve lived next to Drew since we were that age. We were kids - still are kids,” he said. “I keep thinking about the last time I saw him, and how good he was. I hadn’t seen him in years, but I was so impressed by him.”

Gentry relayed a story that his mother reminded him of, from when he was younger and he was in his backyard with a friend about 11 p.m. They were up past when they should have been, when the two boys started hearing noises.

“Like these spooky noises,” Gentry said. “And we start getting really scared because when you’re a kid, you don’t know what’s in the dark. And we got so scared that we ran inside and talked to my mom. We thought people were hiding outside. ... She came outside and we heard Drew start laughing, and we look up and he was in the upper window of his house, looking down at us, making a bunch of spooky noises.

“How beautiful is that? And it’s so simple.”

You can reach Staff Writer Christi Warren at 707-521-5205 or christi.warren@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @SeaWarren.