everybody uh I am Douglas County Sheriff uh Darren Weekley uh I want to thank you all for being here today uh we're here today uh to honor uh Alex mawi and to um allow the family an opportunity to tell you all about this remarkable remarkable young man um this has affected of course the entire uh Highland Ranch Community the Douglas County community um the Douglas County Sheriff's office has been with the family since this horrific tragedy has occurred uh we will continue to stand with this fami
ly um through this process through the legal process um as the sheriff uh I am proud of my staff uh they have done an outstanding job investigating this horrific um incident uh the investigation is not done yet uh it is still ongoing um and we have a lot of work to do still uh we want to ensure that the District Attorney's office has every bit of information that they need to move forward on this case uh but again we are here today uh to talk about Alex and so with that I would like to bring up
Alex's mother uh Victoria to say a few words well hello everybody first and foremost I would like to thank all of you for being here and even more thank you for the space you gave the family I know you lots of you reached out to talk about Alex and I said I'm not ready I think I am as ready as I can right now and here you go I am ready to talk I do apologize if I will start crying as I still cannot control my feelings but I will be strong for him because he's words his death canot go silent it c
annot be another traffic death like other deaths happen in a few years it cannot I am not a public speak speaker by no means I am good communicator it's very hard for me to come and talk to you guys right now because I am very private person but if I will remain private his death his loud scream of death will not be heard and something has to happen something has to happen in the memory of my son my first step would be to put a permanent Memorial as a silent reminder for all kids who crosses tha
t Crossroad no matter how safe you are there is somebody not safe out there for you silent reminder 4 A drivers that no matter how safe you are there always with somebody around you who is not going to be safe my next step is to work close with the Douglas County and do something with that horrible intersection I am there there every single day I come about 6:30 in the morning to be there for official time of death at 6:48 every single morning and I will be there for the 40 days after his death
time I will be there I am there every single day and I see cars flying by I think 45 is way too fast in the zone where kids constantly crossing the road there's something has to be done there and the third and the most important people do mistakes however the consequences of mistakes are different you ran the red lights nothing happened understandable nothing happened you read the light and it caused the death of innocent child who did everything safe why the family why my boy has to pay the hor
rible price for somebody's mistake so what called mistake he's not the one to come home to kiss his family he's not the one to come home to hug me he was very tough boy on public he was teenager he was mom don't kiss me when you drop me off I'm a big boy now he would come home mom I'm home let's Huggle here's your nose you love and I I kiss his nose he was 13-year-old boy he would come home he would do his homework C cuddling with his plus to Benny 13-year-old boy who looked tough in front of ev
erybody he was just a kid I talked to the witness who saw unfortunately every single thing that moment she said Alex pressed the button for the green she said his hands were cold and he was trying to warm up and he had a smile like he was getting for something exciting he had his first baseball practice baseball was his world once he discovered baseball that was it he I asked him do you want to play black basketball still occasionally any other sports in school he was like no Mom let's focus on
baseball I'll be the best I can do left and right I'm Lefty I right he was right in with the right right hand but he was very good at his left he was so focused and passionate about that that's the only thing he was talking about he was getting ready to set up his baseball practice thing we bought him in our backyard when I said the snow storm is coming let's wait he was excited I I sure hope I sure hope the one thing is in my heart that he didn't see or feel a thing that I sure hope he died wit
h that smile on his face without even knowing what happened to him I'm praying to Lord that it was just a light turned off that's it not a single pain for his suff that's what I'm praying for that's it and I will work with the Douglas County to make sure that there no mistake can go unpunished Loa really weak and unfortunately it's not tough enough and I don't see the justice for my little boy there was no justice for another boy who died back in oo back in October on the way to school there's n
o justice these people our law enforcement give them a law to enforce give them a strong law to enforce they are on our side on the parent side give them something to work with not excuses not excuses of the son not excuses mistake can happen oh it can happen to everybody well not everybody dies give us a strong law to enforce thank you I don't know guys if you have any questions I will try to answer them at the best I can correct so do you mind just saying your your last name yes my last name i
s selski Victoria selski my son has last name of his father matkevich we have lots of Polish in our blood and his last name pronounced mavich and just following up on your last point you know these the charges that you know police are trying to to do what they can as you said um but these charges is it the penalty just don't think is you know harsh enough the time that this person's out online what do you think needs to change what needs to change that every single person have to think what if i
t was my baby over there at the Crossroad there are lots of people who out there thinking well mistake can happen you know it was an accident he doesn't have to be punished and occasionally I do reply okay and now imagine it was your baby did everything right if your baby was crossing on the green your baby was getting ready he probably didn't even see what was coming because according to the witness he was facing the sidewalk he was ready to get on a sidewalk he did everything what he supposed
to it has to be a balance of what is right and what is wrong and if it's wrong cousins somebody's death it cannot be Mr Miner it canot be Mr Miner if you did a mistake and violated some kind of law it has to be more severe so people will stop stop breaking the law so they will stop running red lights because they might think about that consequences yes this time I rather R red light not to biggy Mr Min but what if what if it's my child over there that's what they need to think yes I think it has
to go level above to the felony in my world death cannot be a minor thing it's never a minor I first wanted to say that so sorry to every single one of you and I really really appreciate your strengths do this what you're feeling if you don't mind when you see right there you just look at him what's going your him and his brother that picture was taken was on the way to park every time when it was a good weather there was no Force to keep them out of the park practicing his brother his step bro
ther plays for the same team and that shows Readiness and dedication as well as it shows that 13-year-old is still a baby people on public can see one side of him tough you know all those all that so cool how he wanted to look in front of his friends but look at his perfect nose he always said to my to his sister and I have a perfect nose his chicks still were baby chicks two days before he died we were driving I picked him up from school and I don't know why it was very sunny and I don't know w
hy I was trying to look and observe as much as I can from him of his childhood that was his last shreds of his childhood Mommy's little boy and there was a son behind him and he he saw that I'm looking at him and he was showing off his nose and he was like Mom do I have freckles I was like yes you sure do your son kissed but they very very tiny just on your nose and a little bit on the cheeks I said but you have a double chin because I like to tease my little boy and he was like yes how can I ge
t rid of it I said you still a baby you will grow out of it and he was happy he was smiling he put his one earbud and he was listening to whatever he was listening he was talking to to me at the same time the next night he came to my room he jumped in my bed and he said Mama snuggle time 13-year-old bo boy snuggle time he jumped next to me and I hugged him like a mama bear just hugged him and we started to set up his phone his new phone we just got gave him the night before uh and that's the las
t time we snuggled together I asked him do you want to ride next morning she was like he was like no it's very good weather I will ride my one wheeel and I said okay don't stay up all all night he was like I will go to sleep as soon as I set up my phone entirely in the morning he came to my room because he uses our bathroom to do his morning hygiene and he said Mom I'm going to school it's a littleit early but I'll I I'll be on my way was like you sure you don't want to write he was like no and
that's the last time I saw my son at 8:00 i i people who know me they know that my son was my life his school was on my watch I always received his notification from school and um it calls a parents portal through um Douglas County schools and it's think 8:04 my child was reported absent I called Dad first and I said by any chance did you pick up Alex today from school or anything he was no he didn't I was like okay let me call school maybe he was just late so I call school I was on the longest
hold ever meanwhile I was hoping maybe Alex was able to set up the location on his new phone I was just hoping for he did and it showed on that Crossroad I got up and I said okay he probably lost his phone so he's probably late I left the house we leave about 5 minutes away walking distance from the that Crossroad and as I come CL his dad called me did you find Alex I said I did not and I was like oh my God I see lots of police I see news there's something happened and Alex's phone pinned to tha
t Crossroad I start running desperately there was a sheriff's deputy in the middle of the road she saw me coming she stopped the traffic she ran to me and I asked her what happened and and she was there was a car accident I was like tell tell me it was not a boy on the one wheeel and her face dropped she was like nothing is for sure nothing is for sure yet I was like she asked me what was the name of your boy I was like Alex he was on his way to school and her face dropped even worse she was lik
e nothing is for sure because there's still investigation I was like I understand tell me is he going to be okay and at that moment I didn't want to be in her shoes because she was the one to tell her mother that he didn't make it I don't know what happened afterwards I just remember she took me home everything else is in a blur I don't know what was happening I was meeting people people were coming in I was asking questions I was getting an answers some answers but none of that mattered now you
know his last day Victoria did you want to share the story about his generosity and his yeah I that would say a lot about Alex that would say a lot about Alex um this was his first week thank you his first week at school and I know the Douglas County provides free lunches free maybe not just dou Douglas County I'm not following that but uh he had a lunch account set up for him anyway and within two days I got Bank notification ding ding ding that it was uh replenished multiple times per day som
etimes and I pulled the lunch accounts from school and it was multiple transactions in the same day I turned on my mama bear called the school and I said I feel my son is getting bullied I think my son is getting bullied because why would he buy 20 30 40 lunches per day I mean what is going on like small transactions but it's all in the same day long story short they investigated they found out my son was buying lunches for every single kid who wanted something additional he was just standing ov
er there and punching in his number for entire lunch line that's how he was was another thing half of his clothes are in his classmates closets because if somebody likes something here you go Alex where is your favorite hoodie oh somebody borrowed it I don't need it back I it's just he would give something he would really like just because somebody else liked it too that's something you canot teach your child that's something he was born with he was caring and he was as I mentioned goofball he w
as really he loved make people smile including us I mean there's lots of our little things at home little jokes that I don't think it's going to matter anymore every night he would go to sleep he will stop by the my room he will give his nose for goodbye he will turn his butt for this slap for his good night he was a baby no matter how tough he was you have yeah um when I was uh thinking about the uh the question that was asked earli about what I what do I think or what do we think when we look
at these pictures of Alex I was uh recalling uh how gifted of an athlete he was with baseball um in his last couple of years of playing baseball I would go to every single practicing game and he' play with my uh my uh my son uh there were my my son and him they grew up together for five years and they were the best of their friends they were the closest Brothers they were around the same team and every time Alex come up to bat I would jump up with my phone and I'd be waiting for that next home r
un from him he would go Thump Thump Thump with that bad I once saw him hit three home runs in one game I mean he was that good and he could bat Lefty and righty he could throw Lefty and righty and I I wrote in his obituary that um I would watch him fly across the home plate often with his wings spread high and that's partially where we came up with the idea of fly high for Alex he's flying high and even though we are grieving I know he wouldn't want us to grieve he'd want us to be happy and make
a positive difference and change and learn from this learn from his example because he was the model example and I am honored to have helped raise him for the past 5 years and I will truly miss him and his community will miss him and it shows by the hundreds of people that supported us that's all I got to say I would say it was in thousands not hundreds and for all people who reached out to me out there sometimes I did not reply sometimes I just put the heart next to your reply but I did read e
very single message every single one message and those Communications were in thousands and I know the not Douglas County parents but I truly hope that all Colorado parents will stand with us for changes all Colorado because it's not Douglas County problem it's the Colorado we have to do something for our kids we need to make sure they safe and I just want all parents parents of Aurora parents of Thornton parents of Arvada Littleton Highland range I just want them to realize that we together onl
y us all of us together can do something we have to be heard our message has to be heard thank you hello everyone I'm Alexander's Father Robert matkevich I would like to say a little bit about my son I as a father would never have thought that I would have to see that day I have to bury my own son Alexander Robert matkevich Alex was my little boy and no matter how fast he was growing up I treated Alex like he still was one Alex was very popular had a great personality and many friends Alex loved
snowboarding and hitting every jump he saw and going to the Royal Park one of Alex's favorite things about the mountains was the views he would always say this to me dad look at the beautiful for views and begin to take pictures and videos of it Friday was our favorite day but now it is an empty day that day I always picked up Alex from school and we had chicken filet meal with the vanilla shake it was our favorite day of the week and now it brings sadness loneliness as well as empty week weeke
nd as Alex stayed the entire weekend with me and his big brother the favorite things they like to do was to play catch video games and make dinner together or just order their favorite cheese pizza when I got Alex a one whe for his 13th birthday he instantly loved it more than snowboarding and a dirt bike riding and we could not get it get him off of it I remember that once Alex unpacked it the one wheel an hour later he already knew how to ride it and to this day I still don't know how to get o
n it Alex dream was to be a baseball player he was looking forward to his spring baseball season but did not get to make it to his first practice this year Alex just learned how to bat both right and left-handed and was naturally Lefty and love to play center field and catch fly balls there was no better feeling for all of us being at the games watching Alex place play but now it's just a memory traffic safety for school kids should be a prior priority and no parent should ever go through this A
lex was a sweetheart Alex was handsome Alex was my pride and joy Alex was a young star and talented at everything he did he was loved by everyone and will be missed by everyone my life will never be the same but all the memories with will be within me forever I I don't know what else to say so the last thing I would like to say is thank you for the support from everyone out there from the community because it did show how much support we received thank you yeah my brother well first of all my na
me is Elena I am his older sister there's a lot to be said about my brother a lot more things that what my parents had already said before but he was a really charismatic kid he was always very very happy he it was it was to a certain extent weird because nobody could be that happy all the time there's it's just not it's not natural but that's just the way he was um I remember specifically I came home from college one day and I'm an a engineering major and I was very excited about like everythin
g that I've had to experience from college all of my classes my friends everything and my mom is my witness I was very annoying about like oh I love California I love everything I'm doing and my brother I never really paid attention but apparently my brother was listening to all of this and he realized how much I really was enjoying my career um and the next time I came back home to visit I see that my brother has taken the same interest as me he tells me I want to go to Davis I want to be an en
gineer I was thinking first of all copycat that's my thing but it really showed that he was just a kid he looked up to specifically me because I'm his older sister but also you could really tell that he really focused in everything that he that he liked my mom said he chose baseball he decided to be the best baseball player he practiced everything but then also specifically with what I'm doing like engineering I come home and I see that he made himself a 3 like obviously he bought my parents bou
ght the 3D printer but he set it up all by himself I've been taking classes I'm paying tuition to learn everything that he learned by himself in a dark room online everything that he was doing was incredible he C he knew how to do everything really impressive for a 13-year-old he was so smart and he was so dedicated to everything that he lik liked like if he was interest interested in something he didn't go halfway he hyperfocused and he was there until he knew everything there is to be known ab
out something he was very caring little sweetheart he something that's not normal from a 13-year-old boy is taking care of his 20-year-old sister when he's 13 or in my case back then it was I was 18 and it was just how can a baby be this responsible how can he go out of his way to like be empathetic because usually little boys aren't that empathetic they see they say things they do things but that wasn't in his nature he was always very very sweet and it's we are talking to about him in the past
tense because as a sibling especially our age you don't expect to be talking about your little brother in the past tense about who he was what he wanted to do being an older sibling you see that it breaks your heart knowing that he's not going to grow up and he's not going to do the things that you were so excited for him to do to eventually get into high go to high school go to prom graduate start college start really discovering who he was and I was so excited for that for him because it was
such a journey for me but now it's kind of empty my brother was everything that I wanted to be despite the fact that he was younger I wanted to be empathetic the way he was sadly I could never achieve what can be done naturally I wanted to be as smart as he was to just get things the way he did now I always took me that extra mile I was wanted to be able to be that person that you can talk to the same way that he was I was having fullon adult conversations with an 8-year-old and I probably told
him things that I shouldn't have it's not age appropriate but he was there and he just understood it he understood everything the entire reason I met my boyfriend was through him because we were pping on Tinder together and he swiped on him he was just he was a friend he was very easy to talk to feels a little Hollow now knowing that I won't have that again thank you if anybody has any questions I'd be glad to answer okay so uh as the sheriff of Douglas County uh I will be working with the famil
y when the time is right to meet with our local legislators for potential changes in the traffic code Alex's life was taken in a moment because of the driving actions of an individual careless driving resulting in death carries a maximum of a $1,000 fine in one year in County Jail a maximum this family lost a son they lost a brother and on top of all that the justice system is likely going to fail them as well that's not right this kid deserved to grow up people need to pay attention when they a
re behind the wheel and focus on nothing else and if they are in doubt they slow down and they stop before proceeding uh I can't go into too much more detail about this other than to say that we will be side by side with this family and fighting with them now and moving forward to bring about about appropriate change in the state of Colorado because what has happened to this family should not happen to any other families and so my hope is during the next legislative session that we can bring abo
ut about appropriate change uh they will never have the justice that they need but Colorado needs to do better to protect victims and to protect families and to protect other people out there on the roadway is there any questions yes ma' did it take so long um when I was out there at that intersection looking at that Memorial there are so many flowers and so many things there I talked to somebody who lived in that neighborhood and said it's been crazy like this ever since I grew up here decades
ago why did it take this for change to happen uh that's a good question uh since I had become the sheriff um a little over a year ago we've nearly doubled the size of our Traffic Unit Traffic Safety traffic enforcement is important to me as the sheriff of this community and um it's important that people pay attention uh and through through enforcement and uh you know our goal is voluntary compliance but uh when that fails you need enforcement and people need to pay attention and so we've made an
emphasis of that on that since I have been the sheriff um but uh people tragically uh die uh in motor vehicle accidents uh or as pedestrians throughout this entire State on a regular basis and it's a headline for a day or two and then people forget and so uh our objective is to make people not forget and to realize that when you're behind the wheel um it's important to be paying attention at all times and people go about their day-to-day lives driving their motor vehicles to and from anywhere t
hey go and uh they lose focus on what's truly important and that's what you're doing behind the wheel and so uh we don't want Alex's death to be in vain and uh we want to uh be able to uh bring about change and unfortunately a lot of times change does not occur until there's a horrific tragedy and so uh we're not going to let this be another headline for a day or two and then move on until the next child dies uh we're going to do what we can to make change now going off on that I believe that we
heard that there was cameras at that intersection that they weren't recording since since this has happened are they being recorded before um we the county has not had a recording mechanism for traffic cameras uh you may recall a couple months ago that there was a shootout in the middle of inness in the middle of an intersection uh the Douglas County Sheriff's Office uh members of my staff uh and uh myself have gotten with our County Commissioners uh and we found funding to start recording thes
e cameras and have being able to pull uh those recordings and so uh unfortunately that's that's not uh happening until April 1st uh it's it's a little bit late uh but moving forward um we're happy to say that that there has been some change in County government and we will be able to start pulling video from these cameras any other questions okay uh I very much appreciate everybody coming today um thank you very much
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Heartbreaking
JUSTICE FOR ALEX!! 🙏🏽🗣️