Volunteers gathered in Los Cerritos Park on Saturday, Sept. 24 to help paint a mural in tribute to a beloved local family killed by a drunk driver on Halloween in 2019.
Parents Raihan Dakhil and Joseph Awaida were pushing their 3-year-old son Omar Awaida in his stroller through Los Cerritos Park towards their home in the adjacent Country Club Villas condominiums after a night of trick-or-treating when they were struck from behind by the intoxicated and speeding Carlo Adrian Navarro.
All three family members suffered fatal injuries.
“The Awaida family represents the best of humanity,” said Matt Guardabascio, a friend of Joseph. “They are kind, they are generous with everything that they have and their loss lessened the community.”
Navarro was sentenced to 25-to-life on Sept. 15 for three counts of murder and gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated. The woman who sold the then-underage Navarro the liquor he drank that night plead guilty to a misdemeanor count of furnishing alcohol to a minor and was sentenced to 364 days in custody, five years probation and 720 hours of community service.
“We asked [LaJon Miller] to incorporate a tribute to the Awaida family, specifically to Omar Awaida, and wanted to have him incorporate him into the mural and honor him and have a space for celebrating life,” said Cynthia Luján, director of public art for the Arts Council for Long Beach.
The park’s first and only mural is titled the “Omar Awaida Tribute Mural” and depicts Omar and two other children riding bicycles at the park, pulling three trees in wagons behind them, representing each family member that was lost.
“It was inspired by the kids in the community mostly, and also it’s a tribute mural to the Awaida family that was lost through a drunk driving incident,” Miller said.
The mural is part of the “7 for 7” project funded by Council District 7, which will commission seven new murals throughout the district. Although Los Cerritos Park is now part of District 5 due to the redistricting process that occurred in 2021, the mural was still included in “7 for 7.”
The project is being planned in collaboration with the Arts Council for Long Beach, who reached out to artists to design murals and community members to volunteer to paint them.
“I came up with the idea to get the community involved with it as well so that way they could feel like they contributed to a public piece, kids and adults,” Miller said. “So now every time they see it, they can say, ‘Oh, I had a part in the creation process of that mural that we have.’”
The Omar Awaida Tribute Mural can be found at Los Cerritos Park at 3750 Del Mar Ave.
