Victim of alleged DUI collision in California was leaving an AA meeting when he was hit
Ray Galindo was a proud member of Alcoholics Anonymous for the past 15 years of his life. He chaired meetings, encouraged others and was a guiding light for people new to the program.
It wasn’t his regular meeting, but on Thursday, April 23, Galindo attended a meeting outside of Living Sober Fellowship on Woodland Avenue to support a newcomer.
He was talking to that newcomer after the meeting, sitting on the tailgate of his parked pickup, when an alleged drunk driver swerved off the road and hit him, according to Modesto Police.
As Galindo, 58, lay on the ground, one of his fellow meeting attendees “held his hand ... to give him the same respect,” said friend Dee Gisler. Galindo was later pronounced dead at a hospital.
Gisler and other of Galidno’s friends described him as a generous, thoughtful man.
He leaves behind two adult sons, Ray Galindo Jr. and Thomas Galindo, as well as 9-year-old son Elijah Nabor Galindo.
Elijah’s mother, Dee Dee Leslie, said. “He was such a good dad. He wanted (Eli) to have a good education and all the stuff he couldn’t have.”
“Ray didn’t have much but what he had he gave freely and was blessed to do so,” Gisler said. “Every time you asked him how he was doing it was always the same, ‘I am blessed.’”
Galindo, who moved to Modesto from Santa Ana when he was a child, was a union plasterer for most of his adult life. He had an enthusiasm for sports and played and coached several softball teams. He enjoyed taking Eli to Gisler’s ranch to ride horses and every year took him camping and fishing through an AA-sponsored event, Leslie said.
His ex-wife Josie Garcia, the mother of Ray Jr. and Thomas, said Galindo started in AA around the time they were going through a divorce. She said he struggled with sobriety but would always go back to AA and made amends with her and their sons before his death.
“Ray, just as any other human being, is not created perfect,” said his brother Michael Gutierrez. “He tried to do his best in what he was called to do. I see this is a testament .... to my brother’s life.”
Gonzales and Gutierrez both said he was devoted to AA and the people he met there.
“When I first got into sobriety, if I needed him, if I needed food or help or a hug, Ray was the go to guy,” said friend Sheila Butler. “He’s helped many young people come into the room (for AA meetings). He’s bought them tennis shoes, clothes, whatever they need.”
The driver of the Ford Ranger who hit Galindo, 22-year-old Braxton Howze, allegedly walked away from the scene but was caught nearby. He was arrested and has been charged with vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence, hit and run resulting in death, and driving under the influence. He remains in jail on $1 million bail. He declined a request by The Bee for an interview.
“The first thing that Ray would want us to do is pray for this man; he would want that man to get some help,” Butler said.
“All of us members in AA have done the exact same thing this man has done (driving drunk), so we have sympathy for him,” she said. “We are all in the rooms (for meetings) and we are striving to stay clean and sober. This man made a bad decision and it had a very bad outcome.”
Leslie said that at the end of each meeting, attendees say the Lord’s Prayer.
“He left that meeting and God took him straight to heaven,” she said.
The family of Ray Galindo has set up a Go Fund Me account to raise funds in his name to be donated to the Valley Recovery Resources, a non profit that owns and operates Redwood Family Center. The Center provides a faith-based clean and sober living environment for women and women with children.
To donate go to charity.gofundme.com/o/en/campaign/ray-galindo-memorial.
This story was originally published May 4, 2021 at 8:08 AM with the headline "Victim of alleged DUI collision in California was leaving an AA meeting when he was hit."
