DES MOINES, Iowa — It's not very often that the community gets to see video of someone who recently passed away. But with Oakridge Neighborhood, the voice of Zacharia Warsame is heard once again.
"I have a lot of friends that I go to school with at Oakridge," he said in the video.
Teree Caldwell-Johnson remembers Warsame fondly.
"I really always considered Zacharia to be almost like the mayor of Oakridge," Oakridge Neighborhood CEO Caldwell-Johnson recalled. "He was like the strongest ambassador, one of our biggest proponents and cheerleaders."
Fourteen years old. Charismatic, smart and engaging.
"You know, he had a smile that was bigger than any smile I've ever seen. His energy would just light up a room," Caldwell-Johnson said.
Teachers admired him, including Gerald Joseph.
"He could do things that most adults would do and do it just as well," Joseph said.
His friends remember him fondly, too. They called him a champion, smart, a leader, and that he was kind and intelligent.
But he got caught up in some bad stuff.
In January, he and four friends stole a car, led police on a high-speed chase and crashed.
Zacharia and two others died on scene. All five of them were somehow associated with Oakridge.
His friends never imagined he would die.
Those who loved him hosted a vigil in his honor, and continue to reflect on what happened that tragic night.
"I was a little angry at first, you ask yourself, what could you have done to change the outcome," Joseph told Local 5.
Reflecting, calling the incident what it was and nothing more.
"You know, choices that we make, do indeed have consequences," Caldwell-Johnson said.
But that cannot be the end of the light for this 14-year-old. There are still so many more kids who need help.
"I always talk about the magic that we work here in the Oakridge Organization. Not only do we work magic but I think we create magic," Caldwell-Johnson said. "This is just a situation where that magic just somehow got lost and that's unfortunate but we won't give up.
"I mean we'd be crazy to give up because really, our goal should really be to mitigate these situations and to support these kids."