‘The light in the room.’ Friends mourn Navy serviceman from Newman killed in crash
William Shawn Pizarro of Newman joined the Navy in large part because he wanted to see the world. Specifically, he wanted to visit Japan because “the car scene is really big there and he wanted to bring a car back,” close friend and fellow “car guy” Alex Samson said Tuesday.
But the farthest Pizarro — Shawn to those who knew him — got in the service was Florida. He was killed in a car crash early Sunday night in Turlock while home visiting family and friends. The 2020 graduate of Orestimba High School was serving as an aviation machinist mate at Naval Air Station Lemoore, which is in King and Fresno counties.
At the time of the crash, Samson was driving behind Pizarro, who had two other friends with him. They were to meet up at Samson’s home in Newman.
Samson got stuck at a red light, and when he next saw Pizarro’s car, it was a wreck.
Turlock police are investigating the crash, which occurred about 12:20 a.m. Sunday on the 3500 block of West Monte Vista Avenue. Late Tuesday afternoon, the Police Department issued a news release on the crash.
It says officers found a solo-vehicle crash into a fire hydrant and a concrete irrigation box.
Lifesaving measures were performed on Pizarro, who was taken to a local hospital, where he died.
One passenger, a 20-year-old male, suffered life-threatening injuries, the news release says, and another passenger, an 18-year-old male, had injuries that were not life-threatening. Both were taken to hospitals.
Speed was a factor in the crash, police said, but alcohol does not appear to be.
Samson was first on the scene and shared with The Bee what he found. “Honestly, I believe that he was going a little too fast,” he said by phone, “and he just lost control of the car, and right outside of America’s Tire, he ended up hitting that cement (irrigation box).”
Choking up, Samson added, “Shawn passed away on impact, I believe, because I checked his pulse” and couldn’t find one.”
Eric Perkins, one of the two passengers in the car, gave his recollection of the crash Tuesday night before a vigil for Pizarro. He was tired that night from working all week and had wanted Pizarro to drive.
“We hit some dirt,” Perkins said. “We were going a little too quick.”
The two friends riding with Pizarro — Samson referred to the four as “like brothers” — were badly injured, and one is in an induced coma, Samson said.
Samson called 911. While he was checking the pulse of the friend now in a coma, that young man began involuntarily shaking. Police quickly were on scene, and “we were holding his neck, trying to stabilize him” until emergency medical responders could take over.
Remembering a brother
About 60 people gathered Tuesday night for a vigil honoring Pizarro’s life. They met at America’s Tire and crossed the street to the edge of an orchard where a small memorial cross had already been placed.
The group — many of them high school peers of Pizarro’s — shared memories, left mementos on the cross and lit prayer candles.
One of the attendees also did a memorial burnout with his truck, spinning the wheels until smoke filled the sky and the scent of burning rubber lingered over the memorial site. Samson said burnouts are a way people who are in the car community honor the death of a car person.
At the center of it all, Pizarro’s core group of friends did their best to lead the mourners while grieving their loss. They remembered his smile, the way they bonded over cars and how they felt he cemented their friendships to each other.
“He was the one person holding our group together,” Perkins said.
Working on cars was one of the main ways the group spent time together.
“We were always working on the cars together,” Samson said. “That was one way that we expressed our emotions was through cars. We built cars, we drove cars. They were more than just a car to us.”
Perkins said Pizarro taught him how to drive stick shift and helped him discover a passion for cars he didn’t know he had.
Justin Hong, another close friend, remembered spending five or six hours at a time in the garage with Pizarro.
“I felt right at home,” Hong said. “We would all be able to relate with cars and the feeling we’d get inside just shifting gears or seeing our friend’s car running for the first time.”
Pizarro kept it on the down-low so as not to hurt his parents’ feelings, Samson said, but when he’d come home for visits, his first stop was to see friends. He’d see a posting on Snapchat that the guys were hanging out together “and he would just come down out of nowhere.”
Pizarro was “always the light in the room,” Samson said and could bring smiles to friends’ faces “no matter what we’re going through.” He was known for always making sure others felt comfortable and included.
It was hard to be sad around Pizarro, Samson said. “Even now, we’re smiling looking at his pictures.”
As they concluded the vigil, Samson looked out at the crowd and everyone who he knew gathered to support their friend. He knew there was one thing Pizarro would have wanted for them.
“Drive safe and just get home,” he said.
Pizarro is survived by his parents and little sister, said Samson, who set up a gofundme account to help his friend’s family with a funeral and other expenses.
This story was originally published March 31, 2021 at 8:46 AM.
