Las Vegas police ID suspect in hit-and-run that killed 3

Deandre Lyle was always good at letting his mom know where he was, but when Kristy Lyle reached out to him Saturday night, she said he didn’t respond.

Hours later she would learn that her son died.

Deandre, 13, and two other boys, ages 12 and 15, were killed Saturday night after they were hit by a car while walking on a sidewalk in the east valley. Another 13-year-old was injured but expected to survive. Two of the three boys killed appear to be related, police said.

Police said Joseph Eskandarian, 28, lost control of a 2007 Suzuki Forenza just after 9:05 p.m. and ended up on the sidewalk where the four boys were walking along East Desert Inn Road, near Ocean Crest street. Preliminary evidence shows the man was trying to pass a car on the right shoulder of the road before it crashed, police said Saturday night.

The Suzuki took out a light pole, hit the boys, spun and eventually stopped when it struck another light pole and a tree, according to police. Eskandarian fled the scene on foot, but was arrested about six hours later. He is being held without bail in the Clark County Detention Center.

Standing at the crash scene Sunday afternoon, Lyle described Deandre in the present tense.

“He doesn’t always clean up his room, but good kid,” she said, between sobs.

Lyle said her son was enrolled in advanced classes as a seventh grader at Harney Middle School.

He liked science and gym, but other subjects not so much. “Everything else was stupid,” she said.

Away from school, Deandre’s favorites included basketball, video games and computers, his family said.

His grandmother, Ann Reynolds, described her grandson as a sweet, quiet teenager. He turned 13 on Sept. 11.

“He was so smart,” Reynolds said. “He was just smart.”

So much so that school could be boring, Reynolds said. “That’s why she put him in advanced classes this year.”

Reynolds said drivers frequently speed down that stretch of Desert Inn. The crash occurred between a posted 35 mph and 25 mph speed limit zone.

Crash site memorial

A steady stream of cars stopped at the crash site as family and friends laid flowers and candles early Sunday afternoon. Bright-green spray paint and skid marks marked the path of the car along the sidewalk where the boys were hit.

Standing in front of the makeshift memorial early Sunday afternoon, Edward, a seventh grader, said he has known the boys for three or four years and hung out with them everyday.

He said he saw the boys at a park just minutes before they died. One told him he was going to the store, and that was the last time he saw them.

“It’s sad that they’re gone,” he said, his voice quivering.

Deandre’s family said they had heard he was at his friends’ house when the group of boys decided to leave and get food at a nearby Jack in the Box.

A half-eaten hamburger lay on the sidewalk, just yards away from a half-eaten taco and a torn wrapper.

A “no parking” sign at the site of the deadly crash rested on the ground surrounded by candles. Just a few feet away, rocks from the landscaping area the car apparently drove into were strewn across the sidewalk. Broken pieces of car and shards of glass littered the area.

By Sunday night, the memorial had grown to include dozens of candles and flowers.

Ruth Arriaza, who helped organize a vigil for the boys with other members of her church, said she knew the two boys who have yet to be named. She would see them at the same bus stop where her kids catch the bus, though her kids go to an elementary school, she said.

“I cannot imagine the pain of this family,” she said through tears. “I haven’t slept just thinking about how this could happen to any of us. It’s very sad. Very sad.”

Arriaza said she is also thinking of the family of the man who lost control of the car.

“They are going through their own tragedy as well,” she said.

A Go Fund Me page was set up to cover funeral costs for the two boys, whose names have not been officially released. By 9 p.m., the page had raised more than $2,500 of its $20,000 goal. Their family members could not be reached Sunday.

The three deaths mark the 101st, 102nd and 103rd traffic-related fatalities investigated by Metro this year.

Contact Blake Apgar at bapgar@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5298. Follow @blakeapgar on Twitter.

Review-Journal staff writers Rio Lacanlale and Mike Shoro contributed to this story.