Loyola High School in Los Angeles honored senior Braun Levi for ranking among the top national boys tennis players just last month.
Just days ago, the 18-year-old secured still another triumph, taking home the Mission League doubles championship. Holding up four fingers, one for each of his four straight league doubles championships, the ecstatic Levi is shown next to teammate Cooper Schwartz.
Coming just a few months after their house in Pacific Palisades burned in the January blaze, those successes had to be a bit of a salve for the Levi family. The family now lived in the South Bay.
Then, a month before Levi’s high school graduation, it seemed incomprehensible when Loyola Principal Jamal Adams emailed staff members and students of the Catholic Jesuit institution on Sunday to let them know Levi had been killed in a road accident just hours before.
Adams stated, “braun was a shining presence in our Loyola family, bringing light, joy, and inspiration to everyone he touched.”
On campus Sunday night, the principle encouraged the Loyola school family to participate in a prayer vigil. “All members of our community are welcome to join us as we assemble in unity and remembering, Adams stated.
Police from Manhattan Beach claimed to have detained a 33-year-old Los Angeles woman suspected of drunk driving and homicide in connection with the crash—which they stated happened following midnight Sunday morning.
The department’s brief news statement stated merely that a call concerning a traffic accident involving a pedestrian in the 100 block of South Sepulveda Boulevard came in at 12:46 a.m. They came upon the victim—whose name they did not know—lying in the street.
According to the police report, Los Angeles’ Jenia Belt was arrested following the collision. A police watch commander reported that Belt stayed in the Manhattan Beach jail Sunday.
Friends lavished Levi’s social media sites with condolences to him. Levi was scheduled to enroll fall at the University of Virginia.
“Anyone who got to know you knows how lucky they are,” one speaker stated. You changed everyone you came into contact with; you never met a stranger. Living and loving as large as you every day will be my constant.
Said another: “He left an impact whether you were fortunate enough to meet contact with him for an hour or a lifetime. Every time Braun was around, one could not be depressed or bored; his knack for raising those around him was absolutely unique.”
Levi’s social media photos suggest a typical Southern California childhood. Along with his family, he is arm-in-arm with friends on the beach posing for a selfie with actor Adam Sandler and donning a pink suit and a fedora next to a horse racing track. He is wading in a high Sierra lake.
Two years ago, another Loyola High pupil-athlete passed away in the last weeks of his high school career. When the school was on spring break in April of 2023, a train struck and killed Ryan Times, a baseball pitcher.
Coach of the Loyola varsity tennis team, Brian Held dubbed Levi, a three-year captain, “probably the most decorated player to ever play for the school”.
Also teaches Levi AP Economics and Statistics. “We are all stunned, devastated and heartbroken with this tragedy,” Held emailed. “Everyone liked Braun, the most outstanding, all-around leader—even his rival. He was simply that kind of child, different and exceptional. I saw as one of his teachers how he delighted everyone.”
Levi’s parents as well as his older sister survive.
Times staff writer Eric Sondheimer helped to produce this piece.
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