Max Lautaire, 10, sat in a wooden pew at the front of the church Sunday, his right leg covered in a hip-to-toe cast. His mother, Valentina Lautaire, sat next to him, sobbing quietly throughout the service, especially when the priest mentioned her other son, Edouard.
Edouard Lautarie, 9, was killed Wednesday when the driver of an SUV hit both boys while they crossed East Broadway with their mother, just east of North Pantano Road.
The driver fled the scene, but on Friday afternoon, Tucson Police detectives located Ernesto Carrizoza, 39, and took him into custody. He faces a second-degree murder charge “among other felonies,” the department said.
Max was taken to the hospital, but Edouard was pronounced dead at the scene.
The Lautaire family has been attending the St. Michael’s Ukrainian Catholic Church in Tucson for about six years, said Father Andriy Chirovsky, the priest at the church.
Both Lautarie boys were altar servers at the church, helping Chirovsky prepare communion while he delivers prayers to the congregation.
On Sunday, Chirovsky addressed the children in his homily. Almost 40 people sat in the pews, socially distanced and wearing masks, listening as Chirovsky explained to the children what happened to Edouard and what happens when someone dies.
He said Edouard, who was usually an extrovert and a little rambunctious, was a great altar server who managed to stand still and work quietly around the altar.
“Something had changed in him. He had progressed rapidly, immediately,” Chirovsky told his youngest parishioners. “I thought to myself, ‘this is a miracle.’ In fact he was progressing even faster than I knew, because he would soon stand at the altar of the Lord. That’s where he is.”
He told the children although they won’t be seeing Edouard anymore, his soul is there with them, and they will see him again someday, when they die and go to heaven.
He told the children about the “reckless driver” who hit the two boys, killing Edouard, but assured them Edouard will never feel pain again.
“When you hear the words ‘Edouard has died,’ you can be sad, because it’s probably going to be quite a while before you get to see him again, but you don’t want to get hopeless,” Chirovsky told the children.
Lautaire, a Ukranian immigrant who moved to the U.S. about 12 years ago, was raising her two boys on her own, Chirovsky said.
She qualifies for Section 8 housing vouchers, and spent eight months looking for a better neighborhood to raise the boys, the priest said.
She was rejected several times before finding an apartment complex on Tucson’s east side that would accept the vouchers. On Sept. 20, the family moved into their new home, a few blocks from where the hit-and-run occurred.
“Valentina is a very generous and a very courageous woman,” he said.
The family has never had a car, and with Sun Tran buses running less frequently on Sundays, Chirovsky’s wife would pick them up and take them to church, he said.
Chirovsky and the family will be meeting with a funeral home director Monday to plan Edouard’s funeral, he said.
The boys, a year and a half apart, were active and bright. Being baptized and completing their communion was a transitional, powerful moment, Chirovsky said.
“Max has never known life without Edouard. … And now there’s a giant hole in his life.”
