On October 30, 2025, around 11 p.m., University of Arizona students Sophia Akimi Troetel, 21, Josiah Patrick Santos, 22, and Katya Castillo-Mendoza, 20, were strolling in a marked crosswalk at North Euclid Avenue and East Second Street when a 2019 Porsche Boxster barreled toward them at high speed.
The driver, 19-year-old Louis John Artal, hit the three people with a lot of force and then ran away, leaving first responders to deal with the wreckage of their lives and hopes.
Sophia, who was studying journalism and had a laugh that lit up rooms, dreamed of writing stories that would change the world. Josiah, who was studying engineering, was the life of the party at soccer games. His kindness drew friends to him like magnets.
Katya, who wanted to be an artist, drew sunsets with great care. Her family back home was waiting for calls that would never come.
Their futures, graduations, careers, and loves, erased in a blur of rubber and metal. Artal, allegedly impaired by alcoh*l and speeding nearly 60 mph over the limit, didn’t stop to help.
He sped away, but turned himself in the next morning, guided by his father, facing three counts of second-degree mu*der and leaving the scene of a fatal accident.
In court on November 1, a judge set $250,000 cash bond, barring him from driving or using substances, as family testimonies tore at the room.
Sophia’s mom clutched photos, voice cracking: “She was my light—gone because someone chose speed over safety.”Josiah’s sister cried, “He hugged me that morning and said he would call me, but now there is silence.”
From a distance, Katya’s brother said, “We’ll fight for her and all of them.” Their words were heavy, a chorus of grief calling for justice above the roar of the Porsche.
There have been 26 pedestrian de*ths in Tucson this year, more than in all of 2024. This is a terrible number for college streets.
UA is mourning with vigils and purple candles for the de*d. They want crosswalk cameras and speed traps. Friends come together to talk about how happy the three of them were, turning tears into calls for change.
Artal’s clean record and family pleas for leniency are at odds with the destruction of three futures. Prosecutors want trials to start in 2026 and promise that there will be no easy way out.
As November gets colder, the crosswalk stands still, a scar on campus that says, “Walk safely and drive slowly—lives are at stake.”
