SAN ANTONIO – Friends and family gathered at a Northeast Side home Thursday to mourn Judson High School student Darvie Alexander.
"It's unbelievable," said Andrea Alexander, the victim's mother. "It feels as if it's just a bad nightmare."
The 17-year-old junior was hit and killed by a train around 11:30 a.m. Wednesday by the 7900 block of Gibbs-Sprawl Road. Bexar County Sheriff's Office spokesman James Keith said it appears the death is a suicide, although the investigation continues.
The victim's family dispute that he committed suicide. They said the Darvie they knew was "happy-go-lucky," as his aunt called him.
"No one is going to make me believe that my child threw himself on the track," Andrea Alexander said. "I'm not going to believe that."
Alexander believes her son was being bullied and he was on his way to meet someone when he was killed.
"I think he was running from something. Something or someone," she said.
Judson Independent School District spokesman Steve Linscomb said the district has no record of bullying involving Darvie.
The train engineer told investigators that he saw the teen walking along the tracks from a distance. As the train approached the teen, he "abruptly jumped in front" of it, according to a preliminary report from the Sheriff's Office.
Investigators are waiting to review the video from the train in the next day or so.
For Andrea Alexander, seeing is the only way she'll believe that her son took his own life.
"I would have to see that video myself," she said. "I'm not going by what they say."
As they waited for answers Wednesday, Alexander's friends and family took comfort in each other as they waited for more family to arrive. They remembered him as a happy teen.
"You know he didn't make no enemies," his cousin, John Smith, said. "He was friends with everybody. He always had a smile."
His best friend, Pharoah Mitchell, joined the family in the home, regretting the words he left unsaid the last time they talked.
"I can't even get our last conversation back to tell him 'I love you' or something," Mitchell said.
Above all, they miss Darvie.
"I'm going to miss his pretty white teeth, his smile. My tall, handsome son," Andrea Alexander said. "He's going to be well missed."