Angel Esteban wants to meet the young boy he saved from a suicide attempt.
The 15-year-old Gilroy High School sophomore was retrieving his bike following an after-school culinary class at Rebekah Children’s Services just after 7 p.m. on Monday, Sept. 9 when he said he noticed a boy, probably 10 or 11, standing on the nearby train tracks near Rebekah’s on IOOF Avenue.
“The kid was standing right here,” said Esteban, re-enacting the event Tuesday and motioning with his hands to where he remembers the boy standing. “It was crazy. I was thinking, ‘not today.’”
When Esteban heard Rebekah staff members screaming the boy’s name – who didn’t budge, even as the horn of an oncoming train blared on – he knew something wasn’t right.
“I thought he was just waiting for someone, but when I got closer he was still in the middle of the tracks,” Esteban recalled. “I could tell something was wrong. I dropped my bag and started running.”
At that point, Esteban said he remembers thinking “this is probably the end” for not only the boy he was attempting to save, but also himself.
Lynn Nebesnick, Esteban’s foster mother of four years, said her son told her it was a very close call – probably five to 10 yards between life and death. She said couldn’t be prouder of her foster son, who is also a GHS junior varsity wrestler.
“He just threw a move on him and dragged him off the tracks,” Nebesnick said. “He knew this kid was trying to kill or hurt himself. [Esteban] pinned him down to keep him from crawling back on the tracks. He saved his life.”
She wasn’t present at the scene, but said the train began to stop at the first sign of trouble, and that after the tackle Rebekah staff assisted Esteban in restraining the young boy.
“He said he was so close to the train he could reach out and touch it,” Nebesnick said.
Monday night, Esteban was recognized during a small ceremony by Rebekah, which provides foster care and other social services for children and families. Esteban was given a Good Samaritan award signed by Rebekah’s chief operations officer Rebecca Burdett, along with a $100 check. Esteban said he plans on saving the money, but a contagious smile that cracks on his face when he talks about it suggests otherwise.
Angel said he was recognized as a hero days later in culinary class at Rebekah, but administrative staff told Esteban and Nebesnick not to take the story outside of the room.
“While they said ‘thank you’ to him, they said, ‘unfortunately due to confidentiality issues we cannot recognize him publicly,’” said Nebesnick, who met Wednesday with Rebekah administrators.
Staff also declined to comment or illuminate any details surrounding the incident.
Melissa Driscoll, Development and Community Relations manager for Rebekah in Gilroy, said “all information is confidential and we can’t release information surrounding any supposed incident associated with our staff or clients.”
Citing an unspecified confidentiality policy, Driscoll added, “I can’t even say if we have an Angel here or not.”
Nebesnick said police officers were called to the scene. They handcuffed the young boy who had been rescued and put him in the back of what looked like a police car.
Multiple calls over the course of a week to corroborate that statement and clarify exactly what agency responded were unsuccessful.
On Sept. 20, however, GPD Sgt. Pedro Espinoza cleared the air.
“After doing some digging, it turns out we did take a report on that,” Espinoza said. “It wasn’t mentioned in the end of watch report, which has the highlights from the evening and day’s activities.”
Espinoza said there was not much in the report about who was involved but confirmed the young boy was taken by GPD for a mental health evaluation following the incident.
Caltrain Spokeswoman Christine Dunn said Union Pacific has jurisdiction over the tracks in Gilroy. Dozens of calls to Union Pacific over the course of a week were not returned.
Nebesnick, who was miffed by the lack of available information on the incident, said the conductor even climbed out of the train and asked Esteban if he was OK.
“If a young kid tries to kill himself, why is there no report of that?” she asked. “If Caltrain slams on its brakes, why is there no report of that?”
Esteban said Carlos Pineda, his culinary arts instructor at Rebekah, was among the witnesses who helped restrain the young boy to prevent him from crawling back on the tracks.
Pineda told the Dispatch he cannot confirm or deny any incident took place and referred all inquiries back to Driscoll, who declined to comment.
Esteban said the event caused him to have terrible dreams. He was still shaken up the next day and had nightmares Tuesday, but was feeling much calmer by Wednesday of last week, according to Nebesnick.
She described her foster son as a “gentle giant” and took him Sept. 10 to his favorite restaurant – the San Jose Cheesecake Factory – as a reward for his actions.
Nebesnick said community members have also stepped up and thanked Esteban for his actions, giving him tokens of appreciation such as a Jamba Juice gift card and a gift certificate for Gilroy Bowl, the bowling alley in downtown Gilroy.
The week of Sept. 8 through 14 happened to be national suicide prevention week.
Evelyn Tirumalai, suicide prevention coordinator with the Mental Health Department in Santa Clara County, says suicide is the third leading cause of death among young people across the country, according to 2010 data collected by the Centers for Disease Control. In Santa Clara County last year, Tirumalai said the youngest suicide fatality was a 15-year-old. And between 2009 and 2011, she said there were four deaths by suicide in the 13 to 14 age range.
“Suicides are preventable and we really need to move beyond the tendencies to miss, dismiss and avoid talking about suicide,” added Tirumalai. “Parents tend to dismiss the possibility their child could have suicidal thoughts – it’s kind of an incongruity.”
The day after the incident, Esteban said “I feel like I did a good thing” and that he just wants to make sure the young boy is okay.
“It is a good thing Angel did,” Nebesnick added. “And we’re very proud of him.”
