The family of Alyjah Thomas, 15, came forward Saturday to identify him as one of two people killed Friday in a Maplewood crash that followed a pursuit by Ramsey County deputies.
Thomas was a passenger in a stolen vehicle that was first spotted by deputies Friday afternoon near the border of Maplewood and North St. Paul, according to authorities. After a chase that lasted about two minutes, the driver crashed near Chamber Street and Larpenteur Avenue in Maplewood.
The Ramsey County Sheriff's Office said that deputies involved in the chase had lost sight of the car before the crash occurred.
Thomas and another passenger were critically injured and later died. Classmates holding a vigil at the scene of the crash said the second victim was Marcoz Paramo, 14.
"He was funny," said Thomas's classmate, Ari Ojeda. "He always kept a smile on your face."
Ojeda and several others who knew Thomas and Paramo gathered Saturday evening at the scene of the crash. They said a survivor of the crash told them that the car rolled several times before it went off the road. A girl who was in the car remains hospitalized, they said.
Two others, along with the driver, fled after the crash. Law enforcement officers found everyone except the driver, who the Sheriff's Office described as someone with a "significant auto theft history."
Thomas was the second child of Danielle and Eric Thomas, according to a GoFundMe site established by Rebecca Wunderlich of Cumberland, Wis., who wrote that Thomas was her great-nephew.
"Affectionate, impossibly funny, and sometimes troublesome, he was impossible not to love. His mere presence brought so much joy, warmth, and light," wrote Wunderlich.
Matt McKinney
