Victims of high-speed Eagle Rock crash mourned at L.A. cathedral
The three Cordova siblings were their parents' only children. Police initially said the accident stemmed from street racing but now say only that speed was involved. A friend was also killed.
To the sounds of "Amazing Grace" and the soft sobs of mourners, pallbearers Friday rolled three white caskets draped in white cloth down the aisle of the Cathedral of Our Lady of Angels in downtown Los Angeles.
The coffins carried the bodies of three siblings -- the only children of Antonio and Janis Cordova -- all killed in a high-speed crash last week in Eagle Rock.
Family members, friends and fellow students nearly filled the cathedral's pews for the funeral of Cristyn Nicole Cordova, 19, who was pregnant; Toni Marie Cordova, 16, and Andrew Cordova, 15.
Cristyn's unborn son, who also died in the crash, was to be named Carlos Antonio Campos, according to the program for the service.
The sisters, along with friend Jason Hernandez, 19, died Aug. 27 at the scene on Colorado Boulevard where their car was hit by another vehicle; Cristyn was driving. Their younger brother, Andrew, died at a hospital about 12 hours later. Nineteen-year-old Carlos Alberto Campos, the father of Cristyn Cordova's unborn son, was critically injured in the crash.
"God did not say, 'Crash that car,' " Father Mike McFadden said in his homily. "It was a foolish act of someone who was playing a game with life, not understanding the depth of all of that, and the pain they could cause, and the sorrow and the brokenness and the tears that would touch so many."
Los Angeles Police Department officials said Friday that they were still investigating the crash. Although police initially said they believed the cars were racing, officials said Friday that all they know for certain is that speed was a factor.
"We don't have anything to tell us it was road rage or any illegal street race," said Josephine Mapson, a detective with the Central Traffic Division, referring to earlier police reports and to statements by Cordova family members to the media.
Earlier this week, the district attorney's office formally charged Rostislav Shnayder, 19, of Eagle Rock with four counts of gross vehicular manslaughter. He was allegedly driving the car that witnesses said struck the Cordovas' vehicle shortly before it spun out of control and hit a tree. Shnayder pleaded not guilty Tuesday and is due back in court Wednesday, said spokeswoman Jane Robison.
LAPD Sgt. William Kipp said Friday that his understanding was that Shnayder and the Cordovas did not know each other. "I think it was random," he said.
