Jonathan Xavier Dicristofaro, 18, had just graduated high school and made a pact with his father, Alvaro, the elder Dicristofaro recalled in a phone interview Tuesday.
Jonathan Dicristofaro had been planning to study engineering at College of the Canyons, with his father now pursuing a law degree as a commitment they made to each other, after the younger Dicristofaro graduated from Bowman High this year.
Now Alvaro Dicristofaro isn’t sure what his next step is, after learning his son was killed Oct. 3 in a fatal crash in the San Fernando Valley, prompting him to take a bereavement leave from his job in real estate.
“I never thought that I would be put in this position,” he said Tuesday, becoming emotional while describing the effect his son could have on those around him.
“He was really caring. He had a lot of empathy for other people, and in pictures, you would see that glow when he smiled,” he said.
He laughed through the tears as he recalled how his son was a little different than his dad.
And somehow, he had a deeper knowledge most people do not.
“And whenever we’d go somewhere, I was always so mad at him, because I was always taught to like, ‘Live within my means,’ and my mother taught me how to like, eat humbly, and everything with him, he would get the best of everything, he would get the filet mignon,” he said. “And I’m like, ‘Hey, I can’t afford this.’ And he would get the drinks that were not free refills,” he said, contrasting him with his other son, who was a little more like Alvaro.
“So, his younger brother would have water, and then he would get the most expensive thing, and I’m like, ‘Hey, this is killing my pocket.’ And I just never put it into thought that he knew that he was going to be here (for) a short time, and he wanted to live his life,” Alvaro said, “and that was what really hit me, because I never saw how he saw the world.
“He saw the world in a different light,” Alvaro Dicristofaro said, adding he also didn’t realize how talented an artist his son was until he started going through his work.
The whole incident also was a tragic reminder, he said, adding that as a parent, there’s very little you can control when your child is out in the world on their own.
“I think as parents, we think that we’re teaching our children how to be, and we forget that we can’t control the world around them,” he said. “And he just happened to be in a position where someone he was with did a reckless act.”
Los Angeles Police Department officers indicated Jonathan Dicristofaro was a passenger in a car traveling westbound in the center median on Vanowen Street in North Hollywood, when it left the road and collided with a light pole and parked vehicles on the north sidewalk west of Lemp Avenue.
Dicristofaro was killed instantly in the crash, which also resulted in the car catching fire. A second person, 19-year-old Jason Ramirez, also died from injuries sustained in the crash.
The cause of the incident is under investigation, according to Officer Drake Madison with the LAPD media relations office.
A visitation for the family is scheduled to be held 5-9 p.m. Nov. 12 at Eternal Valley Memorial Park Mortuary, with a funeral scheduled from 11 a.m. to noon Nov. 13 at St. Clare Catholic Church.
Friends of the family created a GoFundMe to help with the funeral costs: bit.ly/4nYPgRu.
