Loved ones say I-182 crash victim full of generosity, faith

Manuela Medrano doesn’t think her best friend, Manuel “Mannie” Aispuro, was racing when the car he was driving Friday rolled on Interstate 182, killing him.

The car, a Scion tC coupe, actually belonged to Medrano, who Aispuro had dropped off at work that morning.

He’d gone to get a haircut from his brother, a barber, and was likely on his way to the home he shared with Medrano and her family. The Road 100 exit where the accident occurred was his usual route.

“I know Mannie ... he respected me too much, he respected my family too much,” Medrano said. “That’s why I trusted him with my car.”

Medrano, her family and others close to Aispuro, 19, now only have memories of a teenager they knew as strong and independent, but also prideful and guarded.

He’d grown into a man with a radiant smile, a strong work ethic and a budding faith that led him to be baptized fewer than two weeks before the crash, they said.

The Washington State Patrol is investigating the incident, which involved two other cars that weren’t damaged and whose drivers weren’t injured.

Investigators have said they believe the crash was the result of street racing, something frequently reported on that stretch of I-182. They have video from a witness from before the crash and have spoken with one of the other drivers and a passenger. They’ve requested other witnesses to come forward, but it’s unclear what, if any, charges could be filed in the case.

Those who knew Aispuro hope that one moment will not define for others the man they knew.

“His life will continue in our lives today,” said Pastor René Hernandez of Open Heavens Christian Center in Pasco. “We’re all very proud of him.”

Medrano became acquainted with Aispuro when he was 14 and attending Pasco’s McLoughlin Middle School. He had befriended Medrano’s brother and they spent a lot of time together. It wasn’t long after that Aispuro’s mother moved out of Pasco.

To help him stay in Pasco schools, Medrano’s family invited Aispuro to move in.

He wasn’t always easy to live with — he got under Medrano’s skin occasionally in the early days, she said.

Aispuro told Hernandez in recent talks that he’d made some bad decisions, such as being rebellious toward his loved ones, hanging with a bad crowd and not taking school as seriously as he should have. He attended New Horizons High School but withdrew in September 2014.

“He was like any other kid, with good and bad things, but he was growing up and was getting mature,” said Marianna Medrano, Manuela Medrano’s mother — Aispuro called her “Angel.”

The Medrano family said Aispuro dropped out of school largely for financial reasons and had held a job since he was relatively young. He’d been working as a painter for the past five months and was in landscaping before that. He’d become very fitness-minded, losing 25 pounds. And he’d begun to pursue his GED at Columbia Basin College.

He began regularly attending Open Heavens, the Medranos’ church, in the past eight months. He connected with Hernandez, and they met for lunch to talk about making Christianity a bigger part of his life, including what it would mean to be baptized. It was something Aispuro longed for, Hernandez said, as it was an opportunity to move forward with his life.

Aispuro’s transformation didn’t go unnoticed. Medrano noticed his kindness and generosity toward others, calling him “the perfect man” and that he was proud to tell others he was “the man of the house” for the Medranos. He texted his mother daily and had begun regularly inviting her to attend church with him, which she had done.

Hernandez recalled how when Aispuro was baptized, he changed out of his Sunday clothes into something less formal for the immersion but still walked out in his socks.

When Hernandez told him he could take them off, Aispuro just smiled.

“He said ‘I’m kind of shy; I don’t want people to see my feet,’ ” Hernandez said.

His death has devastated the family, Medrano said. After hearing about the crash and visiting the scene, she came back to her home and went to Aispuro’s room.

“I just wanted to smell him, to have some final impression of him,” she said.

She noticed he’d left the Bible given to him by Hernandez open on his bed from reading the night before. It was on Chapter 25 of the Book of Proverbs, about being a wise person and how to live a Christian life.

“Each and every one Mannie was excited to take on,” Hernandez said.

This story was originally published February 24, 2016 at 9:16 PM with the headline "Loved ones say I-182 crash victim full of generosity, faith."