Rocklin families remember teen killed, say Placer CEO’s statement ‘too little, too late’
Anthony Williams overcame a lot of struggles in his short life. His parents died when he was a child, he moved around from foster home to foster home and he struggled with a learning disability.
But he worked hard, sought out helpful advice and kept focused on his future which was on track toward a college education with big dreams of playing basketball professionally. That ended March 19, when the 18-year-old high school senior was struck by a vehicle while walking on a street in Rocklin.
“He was almost there, it’s just so sad we didn’t get to see it happen for him,” said Andrea Angulo, the mother of Williams’ girlfriend.
After nearly two months of investigation, the Rocklin Police Department announced Wednesday the investigation was completed, the driver of the vehicle that hit Williams was not at fault and the department was not seeking criminal charges. Police officials have refused to release the name of the driver, and they will only release the investigative report to Williams’ next of kin or others involved in the collision.
Angulo is a member of a community advocacy group called “Justice for Anthony” that last week identified Placer County CEO Todd Leopold as the driver. Leopold, who declined media requests for weeks to respond to the group’s allegations, admitted in a written statement Friday afternoon that he was the driver.
“Unfortunately, I could not comment on the pending investigation and certainly did not want to be perceived, in any way, as attempting to influence the outcome of the Rocklin Police Department’s investigation,” Leopold said in the statement. “Now that the Rocklin Police Department has completed the investigation, I acknowledge the great suffering of Mr. Williams’ family, friends and all who have been impacted by the accident.”
Angulo and about 20 other people gathered Friday afternoon for a protest not far from where Williams was struck. She said Leopold’s statement “was very insincere” and only came after the community group identified him and demanded more answers at Tuesday’s Rocklin City Council meeting.
“It was too little, too late,” Angulo said about Leopold’s statement. “He should’ve done it a long time ago.”
Williams, a basketball player at Inderkum High School, was struck by the vehicle about 8:30 p.m. in the 6600 block of Lonetree Boulevard near the Blue Oaks Town Center shopping area, the Rocklin Police Department said. He died later at a hospital.
Angulo last saw him that day leave her home about 5:30 p.m. with his basketball in his hand. She doesn’t know where he was headed that evening, but it’s possible he might have been on his way to meet her daughter who works at a restaurant down the street from the scene of the collision.
“I wish I would’ve offered him a ride that day now knowing what happened,” she said.
Close-knit support in Rocklin
Angulo said Williams had a close-knit circle of friends who opened their homes when he needed help. The teen formed a tight-bond with these families.
“He really liked living in Rocklin. A lot of people took him, because they loved him,” Angulo said. “He always took the help when it was offered.”
Angulo’s daughter, Cameron Angulo, was dating Williams when the family offered him a place to stay. Angulo said Williams was a foster youth who “bounced around a lot” from home to home.
“He was always laughing, always having a good time despite what he went though,” Cameron Angulo said.
Williams’ father died when he was 5 years old; his mother died when he was 7. He had five older siblings. Angulo said he was living with an older sister, who was a young mother and felt her brother could have a chance at a better life with foster parents.
He had been living at Angulo’s Rocklin home in the months before his death. She said he needed a place to stay as he prepared for college.
The 6-foot-8 forward spent years developing his basketball skills and hoped to play in college on an athletic scholarship.
Angulo said she had been working to arrange for Williams to visit the Cal Poly San Luis Obispo campus over spring break. He was looking at the school because that would bring him closer, at least geographically, to his dream of living in Los Angeles one day.
Williams had been a Rocklin Unified School District student from elementary school through his junior year at Whitney High School, where he was a member of the basketball team. For his senior year, he transferred to Inderkum High, where he also played for the basketball team, in the Natomas Unified School District.
Fred Wilson, Inderkum High’s basketball coach, only got to coach Williams for a few months, but he said the young man left a “huge impression” on him.
“His smile lit up the room,” Wilson said. “He was a give-first type of person.”
The coach said Williams was very competitive and a great teammate; sometimes leading practices because he wanted to push his teammates to improve. He said Williams’ death has “hit us all pretty hard;” some of the players knew Williams better than the coach did.
Wilson said he and the team want to focus their thoughts on the short time they had with Williams.
“I’ve been coaching for over 20 years, and this makes me want to be closer with my guys; give them more love,” Wilson said. “Give it all you got, because you never know when it’s gone.”
He had high hopes for Williams continuing to play basketball in college. Wilson said Williams was a “streaky shooter” with good ball-handling skills and a wide-understanding of the game. There were some college coaches interested in Williams playing for them, and Wilson said he and others at Inderkum High were trying to figure out whether Williams could meet the academic requirements to attend a four-year university right away or start at a junior college before transferring.
“He knew basketball was going to give him the best opportunities to improve his life,” Angulo said.
He earned decent grades at school, despite having dyslexia. Angulo said he fought to overcome that obstacle, and he never used his tough childhood as a reason to give up.
“He never felt bad about himself,” Angulo said. “He never asked ‘Why me?’”
Plans to move into Sacramento apartment
Sure, he was getting nervous about going to college, Angulo said, but so do many other high school seniors. And Williams also was preparing to move into a foster youth housing unit in Sacramento in the first week of April.
“He was really excited he was going to have his own space,” Angulo said.
It was a furnished apartment, where he could live on his own before he headed off to college. He also wouldn’t have to fear someone would kick him out, said Erin Acosta, a mother of one of Williams’ closest friends.
Acosta’s son, Aiden Acosta, had befriended Williams when they met several years ago while playing on Rocklin’s Youth Basketball Academy team. She remembers Williams at that age as a “goofy kid” always laughing, smiling and joking around.
“Me and him went through a lot together,” Aiden Acosta said. “He was just focused on graduating from high school and going to college.”
Williams lived in Acosta’s home for about 11 months during his junior year in high school, when foster parents in Rocklin kicked him out. It was unclear what led to their dispute, but Acosta said she didn’t want to send Williams back into the foster care system.
“He obviously didn’t have anywhere to go, and I wasn’t going to kick him out,” she said.
Her youngest son, Darrian, moved out of the room he shared with his brother to make space for Williams. Even though her youngest now had to sleep in his mother’s room, he was bonded with Williams quickly, “like a brand new brother,” she said.
For someone that age moving in with a family not his own could’ve been awkward, Acosta said, but he called her “mom” and referred to her children as his brothers and sisters. She said when her daughter, Kyla, announced she was pregnant, Williams asked Acosta “Am I going to be an uncle?”
For someone who had already been through trauma in his childhood, Acosta said Williams was usually in an upbeat mood. He could get sad from time to time, and he was nervous about gaining admission to college.
‘He was at a good place in life’
“It wasn’t like it consumed him,” Acosta said about Williams troubled upbringing. “He was at a good place in life.”
He would always call her to talk about something good in his life, like recording a new hip-hop beat or song on his computer. He called her after meeting Cameron, who would become his girlfriend, and about the Sacramento apartment he was moving into.
And his friendship with Aiden was a bond that could never be severed, she said. Her son, who also is an 18-year-old high school senior, has struggled with Williams’ death.
“Those two were inseparable,” Acosta said about her son and Williams. “Aiden shuts down when we start talking about Anthony. He’s angry, like we all are.”
She said Williams didn’t want to be a statistic of a youth failed by the foster system; he wanted to become know for who he was and what he had accomplished despite the obstacles.
“He wanted to make it so bad,” Acosta said. “He deserves to not be forgotten.”
