Relatives remember Dorchester teen killed in crash last week

Rachel Brooks was nervous that her nephew, Immanuel Brooks, would not like the Christmas gift she had picked out. But when the 14-year-old saw the pair of boots she had purchased, his face brightened.

“When he saw them, I knew immediately that he really liked them,” Rachel Brooks said in an interview Monday. “He was smiling, shaking his head ‘Yeah’ while he was taking a look at the boots.”

A child’s smile on Christmas Day is always a precious memory for those who love them. But for Rachel Brooks and her sister, Milagros, this year’s Christmas has taken on an aching importance — it was the last time the two aunts saw their nephew alive.

Known as Manny, Brooks was one of two Boston teenagers killed in a rollover crash on Morrissey Boulevard last Thursday. He was an eighth-grader at the Jeremiah E. Burke School in Dorchester.

The single-car crash took place at 3:17 a.m. near the intersection of Morrissey Boulevard in Dorchester and the entrance to the University of Massachusetts Boston, according to the State Police and dispatch transmissions recorded by Broadcastify.com. Four male teenagers were in the car.

A 17-year-old from Roslindale was gravely injured in the crash, and another teenager sustained minor injuries. The car was speeding down Morrissey Boulevard when it rolled over; all four people were ejected from the car, a 2013 Hyundai Accent that had been reported stolen from Jamaica Plain. A gun was recovered from the wreckage, authorities said.

The crash is under investigation by State Police and Suffolk District Attorney Kevin R. Hayden’s office.

Relatives of the second victim, a 15-year-old boy from Mattapan, could not be reached for comment. A friend has launched a GoFundMe page to help his family with the unexpected cost of funeral services.

Rachel Brooks said her nephew talked about knowing the 15year-old, but she wasn’t sure how close the two teenagers were.

“I’ve heard my nephew speak of him, but I’ve never personally met him,” she said. “And I’m not sure exactly how close they were.”

She said her nephew was not a fan of the drudgery of school, like many kids his age. But teachers have remembered him fondly, she said.

“I don’t know that he loved it,’' Rachel Brooks said. “But some of his teachers or staff members at the school have expressed to us in the past that they found him to be a very sweet and kind kid.”

The Brooks family expressed concerns about the potential role Boston police played in the crash. According to dispatch recordings, an officer spotted the car run a red light in the Neponset section of Dorchester and activated his sirens and lights, but was ordered by a superior not to conduct a pursuit.

The officer did follow the vehicle onto Morrissey Boulevard as it headed inbound past the 7Eleven store before it crashed, according to Broadcastify. Police in Boston have said that State Police are handling the crash investigation.

On Friday, Mayor Michelle Wu said the deaths of the children are painful for their families and the schools they attended.

“Any time that there is something as serious as this, there is a full investigation,” she said. “We will follow the results of that.”

The Brooks family has also started a GoFundMe campaign to defray the costs of the funeral, which the family is starting to plan this week after the immediate shock of Manny’s death.

Manny lived with four siblings who range in age from 10 to 24 and had four other older siblings.

“He was loved very much by his family, especially his siblings,” Rachel Brooks said. “He was very close to his siblings, especially the ones that he resided with. They were all very close. They’re all very devastated right now.”

Rachel Brooks said the family wants people to know that “even though he made a mistake, that doesn’t make him a bad kid.”