Dozens attend dance-filled celebration for young dancer killed in crash
Nearly a hundred people attended a vigil at a South Side elementary school for the 17-year-old dancer killed in a car crash early Thursday morning.
Friends, teachers, fellow dancers and relatives of Boaz Flemister gathered at Warren School in the Calumet Heights neighborhood, where he graduated, carrying green, silver and white star-shaped balloons because he loved shopping, his aunt April Dennis-Mack said.
The vigil, during which star-shaped balloons were released after Whitney Houston’s “I Will Always Love You” played, solidified Flemister’s death for Dennis-Mack, 43. “It made it more real,” she said.
-
Majahna Shorty, left, Angela Hongo, 56, center, and Shanice McCoy, 25, embrace after a balloon release Saturday, Feb. 21, 2026, in honor of two dancers from the South Shore’s Empiire (CQ) dance company who died Thursday morning in a car crash on Bishop Ford Highway. Hongo is the mother of Boaz Flemister, one of the deceased. (Josh Boland/Chicago Tribune)
1 of 6
Majahna Shorty, left, Angela Hongo, 56, center, and Shanice McCoy, 25, embrace after a balloon release Saturday, Feb. 21, 2026, in honor of two dancers from the South Shore’s Empiire (CQ) dance company who died Thursday morning in a car crash on Bishop Ford Highway. Hongo is the mother of Boaz Flemister, one of the deceased. (Josh Boland/Chicago Tribune)
Develop
There were choreographed dances, a DJ and Flemister posters on which people could write love notes with colorful markers. Flemister’s mother, Angela Hongo, emerged from her red house, across the street from the schoolyard, and was greeted by the crowd, who she addressed with a megaphone.
“He was my son, my blood. He came from me and we come from greatness,” said Hongo, 56, who joked that he broke out a few dance moves in the street that day.
2 dancers killed, 3 injured in crash on Bishop Ford Highway
Flemister was one of two people killed in a single-vehicle crash on Bishop Ford Highway around 1:15 a.m. Thursday, Illinois State Police said. Three other people were transported to a local hospital with injuries. On Saturday, state police said they had no updates on the crash.
“The investigation is still ongoing,” Hongo said after the vigil. “So we really don’t know what happened.”
Hongo previously told the Tribune that her son and the other victims were dancers with the South Shore-based dance company Empiire. At the vigil, she said the driver was in a coma, but she didn’t know who it was.
The other person killed was identified as 25-year-old Lazarus Gonzalez, according to CBS News.
Hongo previously told the Tribune that Gonzalez was close friends with his son, who was a dance choreographer and promising rapper.
People who knew Flemister described him as a quiet person with a sense of humor.
“The first one that comes to mind is sassy, for sure,” said Moira Bonadonna, 30, Flemister’s 11th-grade English teacher at Art In Motion, a creative arts middle and high school in the South Shore neighborhood.
“He always wore his bright sweatshirts. He was always a sensation and yet he never wanted to talk in class,” said Bonadonna, who said she saw considerable growth from him throughout the year.
Dennis-Mack also said that Flemister was low-key but had a strong opinion on style. “He was really quiet,” she said. “He would probably say it’s too much…” Dennis-Mack said of the vigil. “He was a background person.”
When Flemister wasn’t dancing, he was shopping. One of her last text messages to Hongo was “Mom, I need $15,” she said.
Art in Motion faculty member Jocelyn Winston said she met Flemister the day he died and he was wearing a rhinestone sweatshirt that made him “shine.” “It was like an aura around him,” Winston said.
Besides his mother, Flemister is survived by two older brothers and a sister.
