Axel Gabriel Quintana Cruz had just turned 20 when he packed up his life in Puerto Rico to chase a better future.
He was adventurous, unafraid of traveling or seeing new places. With his father, Axel Cruz, and “brother from another mother,” Christian Medina-Rodriguez, now 22, he started a new life in Williamsburg, landscaping and working at a Latin restaurant.
Early Sunday morning, police knocked on the senior Axel Cruz’s front door. His vehicle had struck a tree on the edge of Interstate 64, and his now-21-year-old son – named after him – had died at the scene.
The driver, Medina-Rodriguez, had been ejected from the driver’s seat and was critically injured, Axel Cruz said. Virginia State Police could not confirm either passenger had been ejected.
Quintana Cruz had lived in Virginia for a year.
“I feel broken, I feel like someone took something from my heart,” said Quintana Cruz’s 18-year-old sister, Thianexis Gonzalez.
Police responded to a crash around 4:58 a.m. on I-64 near mile-marker 236, just west of Camp Peary. A 2001 Ford Escape, belonging to 42-year-old Axel Cruz, had lost control and run off the road, overturning onto the passenger side and striking a tree.
With his children translating from Spanish, Axel Cruz said his son and Medina-Rodriguez were commuting to their landscaping job at the time of the crash.
About 15 family members drove to Williamsburg from Howell Township, N.J. Monday morning – a seven-hour drive – to visit the scene of the accident. Besides family in Puerto Rico, the closest family Quintana Cruz had was in New Jersey.
On the way to Williamsburg, the family stopped at Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center in Richmond to check on Medina-Rodriguez.
Quintana Cruz’s 22-year-old brother, Larry Cruz, said Medina-Rodriguez was still in “pretty bad condition,” but was responding to doctors’ commands and moving his fingers.
After visiting Medina-Rodriguez in Richmond, the family spent Monday afternoon on the side of I-64 in Williamsburg, picking up personal belongings forced from the vehicle during the accident.
Gathering in a 97-degree Walmart parking lot off East Rochambeau Drive Monday after visiting the scene of the crash, Quintana Cruz’s family members described the 21-year-old as a “humble kid with a bright future.”
“He was my everything,” Thianexis Gonzalez said.
Axel Cruz said his son worked both a day job and night job. Quintana Cruz worked at El Sabroson as a dishwasher, according to the restaurant’s manager Pedro Ramos.
“He was a good worker, a good friend, and always in a good mood,” Ramos said Monday.
The family plans to transport Quintana Cruz’s body and hold his funeral service in Puerto Rico.
Quintana Cruz’s mother Widalys Quintana is waiting for the return of her son to Puerto Rico. She says that despite the ache of losing a son, she’s certain she will see him again in Heaven.
“However strong and difficult the situation is, there are no guilty or responsible,” she wrote in a message to WYDaily. “I loved him, I love him and I will love him until the day I get to leave.”
Surrounded by the circumstances of the 21-year-old’s death, family members were still able to reflect on happy memories with Quintana Cruz.
Seven months ago, Quintana Cruz, Medina-Rodriguez and Cruz were longing to celebrate Mascaras de Hatillo — the Festival of Masks of Hatillo — back home in Hatillo, Puerto Rico.
Knowing they’d be unable to make it back, the three celebrated by hopping in Cruz’s red Ford Escape and creeping along as if they were in a parade, hanging out of the doors smiling, waving and honking the horn.
On Monday, Axel Cruz played the video of the celebration for his family with a slight smile on his face.
“I feel empty, I feel empty, man,” Quintana Cruz’s 20-year-old brother, Michael Gonzalez, said.
Roberts may be reached by email at [email protected]. Fearing may be reached at [email protected].
Correction: An earlier version of this article cited Axel Gabriel Quintana Cruz’s family as stating he moved to the U.S. at age 18, upon receiving his exact birth date from his mother, the article was changed to reflect that he was 20 at the time. This article has also been updated to include comment from his mother.
