The six-year-old son of deceased UC Berkeley alumna Milanca Lopez died Friday evening, one week after the car accident that killed his mother.
Xavier Chevez had been on life support with minor brain function since the accident, in which the car he and his mother were passengers in hit a tree near a traffic circle on California Street in Downtown Berkeley. The car was being driven by Lopez’s boyfriend and UC Berkeley graduate student Jose Lumbreras, 33, whose blood alcohol level at the time was more than twice the legal limit, according to Alameda County court documents.
Lopez was found dead at the scene, while Lumbreras and Xavier were both rushed to medical centers with serious injuries. The Alameda County Sheriff’s Office Coroner’s Bureau confirmed Monday that Xavier died around 6:30 p.m. Friday at Children’s Hospital Oakland.
Xavier and his mother lived in student housing at University Village in Albany since Lopez began studying at UC Berkeley in 2007. Xavier walked with his mother at her commencement ceremony earlier in the month. Lopez planned to begin a master’s program for teaching at UCLA in the fall.
“Milanca and Xavier were remarkable people who against all odds were moving on to an exciting season at UCLA graduate school,” said UC Berkeley alumna Lily Pineda, in a Facebook post on the memorial page created after Milanca’s death.
Lumbreras has been charged with gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated and drunken driving causing injury by the Alameda County district attorney.
“Xavier believed that there shouldn’t be any borders among people,” said Xavier’s father Javier Chevez, in a post on gofundme.com, where family members have set up a donation fund for Xavier’s family. “(He believed) that we should all love each other no matter what. He has left a big impact on the Berkeley community.”
Adelyn Baxter is the news editor.
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Guest and Misrepresentation,
My six-year old was shocked to find out that there was a time that black children would not have been allowed to attend his school or use the same toilet. Children should be politicians; from the mouths of babes comes truth and they expose hypocrisies of adults.
And this has what to do with what again?
Rest In Peace young Xavier. I’m still praying for you. My condolences to the family of Xavier.
I believe everyone is sorry for Xavier. How sad that he had to be killed because his irresponsible mother and her lowlife boyfriend allowed him in a car driven by a fucking drunk. Of course, taxpayers should also regret the amount of their money no doubt spent on the raising of a kid whose mom got pregnant at 15 or 16. Why did she have the kid rather than go to Planned Parenthood to do the responsible thing? Because Lopez knew from her friends and neighbors that the government would subsidize her and her kid, the public be damned…
Abortion is the responsible thing? How about getting a job and paying for the life you created through your irresponsibility?
abortion is murder
No, driving drunk with a child killed because of such irresponsibility is murder…
From her friends and neighbors? I just googled ” Neighborhoods with expertise in gov’t subsidy and came up empty.
Ridiculous ranting discriminatory post. Ain’t no was’ims in here. You be is in your ism’s
This type of information is not on the interwebs, bro.
Did you ever hear the expression “If you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all”? Just because the internet in anonymous, doesn’t mean it isn’t sometimes better to just keep you thoughts to yourself. Kids are capable of higher thought, and if it helps Xavier’s father to deal with his grief to put in his own words what he sensed about his son’s strengths, what difference is it to you? This is a terrible tragedy- it was not Milanca and Xavier’s time. If those who knew them can help in some small way to help their family members, who are not wealthy and have missed much work, to cover some expenses and have a funeral, then for goodness sake, why begrudge that? It is easy to be crass and sarcastic in his type of forum, but really, it is not appropriate. This is a fresh wound for many and not something to pettily trade jabs over. Please be respectful and think how you would feel if these were your own friends or family members in this article.
-mom of one of Xavier’s friends
“This is a terrible tragedy”
No, it was a criminal act by two irresponsible and negligent adults.
This. I’m tired of people using language that obfuscates the specifics of what really happened. Every time there’s a news story about a murder, the people quoted (cops, witnesses, acquaintances) say stupid crap like “it was a robbery gone wrong” or “she was just in the wrong time and place,” language that serves to take away the moral agency of the perpetrators and obfuscate the fact they people actively chose to commit a crime.
”childslaughter”?? I’m guessing that you’re not a student at Boalt.
Actually, metaphor is too complex a notion for Xelxr to handle. He’s probably an Ethnic Studies Stupid…
Ironic how her expensive social welfare degree proved to be worthless when it came to her and her son’s own social welfare ain’t it? Sheesh. No “open borders” where this guys is going either.
What was her BAC?
Time to go to prison, fucker!
RIP Milanca and Xavier. This is not a time to be silent, this is a time for mourning, outrage, serious reflection, love. Jose, I could have had respect for you as a GSI and who knows you might have been a good person, but this is the worst decision you could have ever made. 2 beautiful people, died at the hands of drunk driving, a poor decision. DRUNK DRIVING. IT WAS NOT WORTH THEIR LIVES JOSE!
““Xavier believed that there shouldn’t be any borders among people”
JFC, the poor kid was 6 years old! Why are you putting political words in his mouth?
Absolutely.
What a load of BS propaganda, nothing but the shameless politicization of an accidental death.
The kid’s father’s grief has gotten the better of his sanity.
What a shameful, irresponsible post that reeks of classism, racism and ignorance.
Pathetic judgement from your perch behind your keyboard that disrespects yourself more than anyone else.
This should be removed.
”What a shameful, irresponsible post that reeks of classism, racism and ignorance.”
Stuff a cork in it. The woman was irresponsible and made poor choices that killed her and her child.
Hey Guest, as the late Abbey Hoffman once said, “May all your isms be was’ms.”
Sounds like your ideological bullshit response stems from time wasted in an Ethnic Studies or Middle East Studies course (s). Or perhaps you squandered your education in a Peace and Conflict Studies joke of a major.
And given your level of ignorance, you may well be a member of Students for Just-Us in Foul-Asstine…
I knew Xavier personally. He was a close friend of my son. He was a bright and charming kid with a bubbly, infectious sense of being. His mom’s hard work and attention to raising him well was obvious.
I don’t refute that her poor decision making is at fault here.
I am amazed though at the callous and thoughtless nature of some of these posts. Pretty shocking level of humanity that exists behind closed doors and behind a screen.
No matter how this is cut, it is a tragedy and one of epic proportions for her family.
Nobody here has anything but sympathy for Xavier’s short, sad existence. It’s the lack of acknowledgement of the complicity in his death of the adults to whom he was entrusted that has us outraged.
Comments should be removed because YOU don’t approve of them?
Get a life.
Reztips, the best condom would be one around your mouth to stop all that junk from spewing out. You are a horrible human being.
Given Milanca’s demonstrably poor mothering skills, why would the suggestion that she used a condom provoke such outrage? Or do you find the truth to be far more offensive than someone who entrusted her child in the hands of a drunk driver?
Why don’t you pry a bit more into their business?
How would any of us know or care to know if contraception was used or not used in this specific instance?
Judge not. No matter what religion you may or may not practice, not judging others is a key foundational concept. Tough for Berkeleyans to swallow isn’t it!
Methinks you missed the point. Try reading the article and thread again.
Wow–A free sermon! Are you by chance a member of Rev. Wright’s congregation or an advocate of Louis Fart-His-Kan?
Isn’t not judging others just a key foundational concept of those who do something on which they don’t want to be judged? People with a clear conscience who have not done anything wrong don’t mind people judging their actions. The only person in this incident who hopes no one judges him is Jose.
Judgement is actually a key part of all the Abrahamic faiths–Christianity, Islam, Judaism. You have no idea what you’re talking about. You completely misunderstand the parable of the adulteress.
this is why people need to NOT DRIVE DRUNK.
Deaths like this can be prevented.
WHAT WAS THE BOYFRIEND THINKING?
He didn’t even die, he killed two other people
Agreed. The cost of a cab is far less than the alternative outcome.