Teen who was fatally stabbed in Petworth excelled in school
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Version 0 of 1. He spent Saturday celebrating his mother’s birthday and on Sunday, he headed off to meet his girlfriend and a friend. It was just after 5 p.m. when his mom dropped off Jose Ochoa on Georgia Avenue in Petworth. A few minutes later and a block away, D.C. police said someone stabbed the 17-year-old high school senior several times as he walked in the 4100 block of Eighth Street, next to the Petworth playground in Northwest Washington. Ochoa died two hours later at MedStar Washington Hospital Center. “He was my king, my everything,” cried his grandmother Martha Ochoa. On Tuesday, the 61-year-old sat in the narrow kitchen of the family’s one-bedroom basement apartment off 14th Street NW. She wore one of her grandson’s shirts. She flipped through a family album: a newborn Jose in an incubator at a Los Angeles hospital recovering from an inflamed lung; portraits of him at school, where he was involved with athletics and also the building of sets for plays; Jose as a boy posing with his mother and younger siblings in front of a Christmas tree at a shopping plaza. [D.C. police investigate fatal stabbing of promising teen in Petworth] “He never behaved badly and didn’t like to be out late,” she said. Ochoa, a senior at Paul International High School, a charter school, had planned to go to college; he would have been the first in his family to do so. Relatives said he had been accepted to two schools, including Garrett College in Western Maryland. “I don’t understand why they took him from us,” Martha Ochoa said. D.C. police have said little about the killing. With another fatal stabbing Monday night, in Northeast, the city’s homicide count rose to 159, a near 64 percent increase from 2014. Ochoa was the fifth juvenile between ages 10 and 17 killed in the District this year. Authorities have not stated a possible motive. Ochoa’s relatives said whoever stabbed him took the silver chain that never left his neck, his iPhone 6 and his $250 black Foamposite shoes — one of his prized possessions. Paul International High School Principal Kenya Wilson said Ochoa, who went by his middle name, Alex, at school, enjoyed a good relationship with teachers and students of all ages. On the football field, he loved to tackle, but he bragged just as much while directing others in building sets for plays and assemblies. “He really loved to learn,” Wilson said. “He was never afraid to give adults feedback, but in a very respectful way. He was very excited to go to college, and we at the school wanted to make that happen.” She noted he was a strong English student among his 440 fellow classmates. “He was definitely not a kid who came to school and then went home,” Wilson said. “He felt like he belonged here.” Ochoa was killed two days after Christmas break began. “Everyone shares the same sentiment,” Wilson said, “that Jose was a great young man who had a lot of promise.” Wilson last saw Ochoa on Thursday, when he was setting up the stage for the winter assembly. “He said, ‘I have a clipboard, I feel powerful.’ ” Ochoa was born in Los Angeles to a Salvadoran mother and father. He grew up with his single mother, his grandmother and his stepgrandfather, whom he is named after. He also is survived by a younger sister and brother. In the family living room on Tuesday, Martha Ochoa put up a memorial with Jose’s eighth-grade school portrait. Yellow and red rose petals, and candles with the Virgin Mary’s picture on them, were around it. Ochoa’s stepgrandfather, Jose Pech, 68, said the teen had recently been talking about graduation in June and about how to pay for college. “It’s sad because he had so many dreams,” Pech said. “He told me, ‘Papi, I want to be an architect.’ I told him, ‘You can do it, son.’ ” But Ochoa was worried his family wouldn’t be able to pay for school. Last week, Pech remembers him saying, “I will go two years and if it’s too difficult to pay, I will go to the Navy and will study and work there.” “He hugged me and told me he wanted me to be there for his graduation. He told me, ‘I want you to feel proud of me,’ ” Pech recalled. “I was proud of him.” Now, the family who just days ago was trying to figure out how to send Ochoa to college is struggling to find money for his funeral. They’ve put up donation boxes in local stores. They want to bury him in the District, but Maryland is less expensive. Friends and teachers are planning a vigil at Paul International for 5 p.m. Sunday. One of his friends advertised the remembrance on Twitter, and posted a reminder: “Bring candles.” Keith L. Alexander contributed to this report. |