Three California teens killed in car-ramming crash after ‘Ding Dong Ditch’ prank were ‘inseparable’
The three 16-year-old friends, all athletes, attended a small Christian school through eighth grade
The three teenagers killed late Sunday night, Jan. 19, when authorities say a driver intentionally rammed their car south of Corona, were “inseparable,” said those who knew them.
“Our teachers were all going through our yearbooks and every picture we have of those three boys, they were always together and always being inseparable and always being goofballs,” said Mandy Logan, principal of Olive Branch Community Church and School in Corona.
The three 16-year-old friends who died in the Temescal Valley collision attended the school through eighth grade.
Daniel Hawkins, of Corona; Jacob Ivascu, of Riverside; and Drake Ruiz, of Corona, along with three other boys, had stopped to pull a prank on their way to a sleepover for Ivascu’s birthday. According to Ruiz’s mother, Debbie Ruiz, they were playing “Ding Dong Ditch,” ringing the doorbell and running away before it was answered. They thought they had stopped at a friend’s house.
Instead, they rang the doorbell of Anurag Chandra.
Chandra, a 42-year-old Temescal Valley man, pursued the boys, who were accompanied by three other teens, in his white Infiniti sedan, authorities said. He rammed the Toyota Prius in which the boys were riding, according to the CHP. The impact sent the car into a tree at Temescal Canyon Road and Trilogy Parkway.
One boy was pronounced dead at the scene. Two died at a hospital. The other three were expected to survive, as of Monday.
Chandra was arrested on suspicion of murder and assault with a deadly weapon. Charges against him were upgraded to three counts of murder and three counts of attempted murder on Thursday, Jan. 23.
“Every kid does ‘Ding Dong Ditch,’ but you don’t know who’s behind that door,” Debbie Ruiz said. “From the minute I heard it, I knew God had a plan … I couldn’t not think this way, because God is bigger than us.”
Chandra already faced charges of misdemeanor battery on a spouse or cohabitant and willful injury to a child filed in December.
‘Inseparable’
The boys were remembered as good friends who loved sports and their church.
All six boys in the Prius attended Olive Branch Community Church and School through eighth grade.
Logan remembers Hawkins, Ivascu and Ruiz well. Hawkins and Ruiz started on campus as preschoolers. Ivascu enrolled a few years later. After that, the three boys were “inseparable,” Logan said Thursday.
“Drake was kind of our funny man. He was always making kids laugh. Daniel was kind of a jock. I can’t remember a time when he didn’t have a basketball in his hands,” Logan said. “Jacob was kind of their silent leader. If he said to do something, they’d do it.”
All three ran cross-country for the school, which has fewer than 250 students.
Logan, who wept as she remembered the teens, said their deaths have hit the community hard.
“When you have kids like that, when you work with kids, they’re like your kids,” she said. “You watch them grow up. We’re a small school, so they’re like family.”
“It takes a village to raise kiddos and I kind of feel like we’re their village, along with Woodcrest and Centennial and all those other (schools),” Logan said.
Daniel Hawkins
Hawkins went to Santiago High School in the Corona-Norco Unified School District, where he played football. He was always “working” to improve, according to his coach, Ralph Valdez.
“Week in and week out, you just got better and better,” Valdez posted on Twitter on Monday. “You were a great soul.”
Hawkins would be missed, but “God needs you now,” Valdez wrote.
Speaking Thursday outside court, his father, Craig Hawkins expressed his sadness.
“These aren’t just figures. They are boys,” Hawkins said. “It’s even more devastating because they were such good friends.”
Jacob Ivascu
“My family and I have been falling apart,” Alex Ivascu, Jacob’s father, said Thursday. Jacob was the eldest of five kids and was like a third parent to his siblings, according to his father.
Ivascu attended Woodcrest Christian High School in Riverside, where he played flag football and soccer.
“Our campus is just shaken by this,” said David Lytle, a Woodcrest history teacher and assistant flag football coach.
On Wednesday, Ivascu’s teammates on the Woodcrest boy’s varsity soccer team all wore his jersey number — 25 — in his memory during a match against San Bernardino’s Aquinas High School.
The coach said Ivascu “buzzed off his long hair” this year. In the teen’s honor, the other soccer players shaved their heads.
“He was friendly and funny and smart and he was a good friend, too,” Lytle said. “A lot of people on this campus feel like they lost a best friend.”
The campus gathered at a Tuesday morning assembly to talk about Jacob Ivascu’s death and to pray, Lytle said. Counselors were available for students and staff to speak to.
“There were classes with three students in them because the other kids were talking to counselors,” Lytle said.
People on campus are sad, he said, but they are also angry at what they view as an “uncalled for and senseless” act.
“He was the kind of kid most parents would have been proud to have as their son,” Lytle said.
Drake Ruiz
Ruiz had turned 16 on New Year’s Eve, according to a GoFundMe page set up to defray funeral costs.
“He was a loving son, a kind brother and was loved by everyone who knew him,” the page reads in part. “He was genuinely a great kid.”
After leaving Olive Branch, Ruiz attended Corona’s Centennial High School, where he played football.
“He was a class clown,” Debbie Ruiz, Drake Ruiz’s mother, said.
“Joy and happiness were his main priorities in life,” she added. “We had a lot of fun together. Especially with their boys. It was my goal that we have fun. And we had a lot of fun.”
Vigil, service scheduled
Olive Branch Church will host a candlelight vigil Friday, Jan. 24, at 7 p.m. at the corner of Trilogy Parkway and Temescal Canyon Road. The event will be in an empty lot, owned by Olive Branch, and across the street from where the boys died.
“Tell me how close to home that is,” Logan said, through tears.
A service for the three boys is set for Crossroads Christian Church, 2331 Kellogg Ave., Corona, on Tuesday, Jan. 28, at 4 p.m.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to correctly spell the name of Olive Branch Community Church and School Principal Mandy Logan.
Staff writers Brian Rokos and Eric-Paul Johnson contributed to this story.