Vigil held for 12-year-old Mesquite girl killed in bus crash

Hundreds filled a Mesquite church Saturday night to honor a middle school girl who died during a school bus crash Wednesday.

It was an extremely emotional vigil for 12-year-old Jazmine Alfaro Villarreal. They pastor Family Cathedral of Praise tells FOX 4 they set out about one-thousand chairs for people, but they had to add more due to the large turnout.

Carried by the community, Jazmine’s family was surrounded in the packed sanctuary. Many of them lining the pews, connected one way or another to the tragedy that took Jazmine’s life.

Latonya Edwards’ son got of the Mesquite ISD bus right before it crashed Wednesday.

“It’s really sad because it could have been one of my kids. It could have been one of my kids so it really touch by heart,” she said.

42 students were on board at the time of the crash. Jazmine was the only one who didn’t make it out alive.

“I found out a long time ago that life is not about the number of days we live but our life is about the life that we live in the number of those days,” said Pastor Harry Swell.

Days after the crash, there is still no clear answer as to how the bus went off a narrow stretch of road.

“This twelve-year-old little girl influenced an entire city, an entire community, the entire metroplex, said Pastor Swell. “I don’t know about you, but that’s who I choose to remember Jazmine by.”

Mesquite Police investigators said Friday that the forensic reconstruction of the crash was nearly complete, but at the t time had no new information to share in terms of what caused the driver to lose control on the narrow road.