Friends hold candlelight vigil for hit and run victim
Dominic Atkinson will never forget dancing on a picnic table with Ryan Tsatsos.
That was just one memory friends of the 17-year-old hit and run victim shared during their candlelight vigil Monday outside Merrill Hall. The memorial continues to stand outside the residence hall. Friends laughed through tears as they shared their favorite memories of one of their best friends since high school.
"We spent 30 minutes one night walking around Main Street trying to find this house," Atkinson said. "We get there, we're walking around, then I go to the bathroom and come back, and Chachi (Ryan) is out on this picnic table dancing. He's got his roommate who's not very comfortable with dancing, and he's up there too. They pulled me up and we were just jumping up and down. Every time I saw him after that, I was like, 'When are we getting on another picnic table?' and he's like, 'Anytime.'"
Atkinson described this moment as his favorite memory of Tsatsos, who friends agree was always the life of the party, never failing to make everyone around him laugh. The Macomb freshman was killed just after midnight on Nov. 1, walking back to campus on South Crawford Road. So far, Michigan State Police Troopers are following up multiple leads on the driver, but have no concrete suspects.
Numbers to know
Michigan State Police Mount Pleasant Post: (989) 773-5951
MSP Anonymous Tip Line: (877) 616-4677
Listening Ear Crisis Center: (989) 773-3329
Crime Stoppers (for reward): (800) 422-5245
The group who created his memorial knew Tsatsos since ninth grade — they all attended De La Salle Collegiate High School in Warren. Freshman Greg Aliotta remembered Tsatsos as a friend to everyone — the bind who kept his group of friends together.
"Even if we were in a fight, he always had our backs at the end of it," Aliotta said. "Even in high school when everyone got all quiet, he was the one in the back to stand up and say something funny. Our graduating class was only 200 kids. Everyone was always there for each other no matter who you were. Ryan was that kid who was the first to have someone's back."
Just a few months ago, Tsatsos lost his older brother, Darryl, in a car crash in their hometown. While Tsatsos was heartbroken after the death of his brother and best friend, Atkinson said he never once saw Tsatsos break down. Before beginning classes at Central Michigan University, Atkinson said Tsatsos put on a brave face in front of people, but he knew his friend was struggling.
"It was crazy to spend all that time with him and never have a bad memory," Atkinson said. "I never saw him cry. There wasn't a moment when I saw him not have that cheesy smile on his face — that Chachi smile."
Freshman Joey Mastej echoed Atkinson, and said everything that came out of Tsatsos' mouth was in an effort to make his friends laugh.
"I would see him at the gym all the time. I never really worked out in high school, but he did," Mastej said. "Every time he would see me there he would come up and be like, 'Hey, are you lost?'"
The news of his death came as a shock to his friends, who were in disbelief after just having been at a Halloween party with Tsatsos that night.
"It's a terrible thing, and I hope they find out who did it," said freshman Carson Berlin. "It's a reminder to be safe and drive safe — you never know what will happen."
To help Tsatsos' family with funeral costs, a hometown friend organized a Go Fund Me campaign on Nov. 1. The campaign has raised almost $40,000 as of Nov. 4. Atkinson said this amount of support is a testament to what kind of person Tsatsos was, and how missed he will be at CMU and in his hometown.
"You go through the stages of grief, the not believing it's true, to anger and blaming," Atkinson said. "It's all kind of hit us this way, because we were talking to him just a few days ago about how we were going to have a good weekend. We'll see him again. I just wish more people could be like him."
From high school until now, his friends will remember Tsatsos as a goofy guy, who always had something off the wall to say.
"At our (high school) graduation, one of our classmates was talking to us and told us to look around at all the faces," Aliotta said. "He told us at our first reunion, not all of our classmates would be there. I never thought that would be Ryan. Every morning before my math class, I would eat with him. Even just walking by the cafeteria, I start thinking about it.
"I'm never going to forget this kid."
