Inland Valley

NORWALK >> Hundreds of mourners gathered in Norwalk Saturday to say their final farewells to a 19-year-old autistic student from Whittier who died after being left alone in a school bus last week.

The death of Hun Joon “Paul” Lee, who died after being left unattended for hours on a contracted school bus parked at a Whittier Union High School District parking lot, shocked the community and prompted renewed conversation about care for those with special needs.

Still reeling from the sudden and tragic manner in which Paul’s life was cut short, devastated family members hosted a funeral mass for the young man at St. Raphael Korean Catholic Center in Norwalk.

“I’m so thankful for everyone who loved and cared for him in his life, and I regret I wasn’t able to spend more time with him,” sister Eiden Lee said through tears.

• Photos: Funeral services for student Hun Joon “Paul” Lee

“Since the day of this tragic accident, and for the rest of my life, although it will be so very painful, I will make sure this horrific tragedy will not go unnoticed. I will make sure to live my life to the fullest for my dear brother.”

Loved ones sobbed as the young man’s casket, covered with a white cloth, was wheeled to the front of the sanctuary.

A doll depicting the character “Woody” from the animated “Toy Story” film series provided by the family was placed alongside Paul Lee in his casket.

In addition to his sister, Paul Lee is survived by father Sang Sik Lee and mother Eun Ha Lee.

The father thanked community members who have supported the Lee family and kept the Lee family in their prayers over the past week.

“Even though Hun Joon left us, through him we learned love, felt joy and were happy,” Sang Sik Lee said in Korean.

“Hun Joon went to heaven, but I hope that our society will care and share the love with people with special needs because they should not be ignored or disregarded. What happened to Hun Joon should not happen again,” the distraught father said.

“And lastly, I’m sorry that I couldn’t protect you,” he said. “I love you. I love you Paul.”

Funds to help the Lee family are being collected online through Sunday at www.gofundme.com/uh44mgbs.

Family and friends have also established a Facebook page titled “Justice for Paul, Safety for All!” to share their thoughts and memories about Paul Lee, as well as the ongoing investigation into his death on Sept. 11.

“My heart continues to break every day for Paul’s family,” Jinri Kim, who said she used to babysit Paul, wrote in the forum.

“Paul is honestly the most gentle and peaceful person I know. He always responded to my questions with a smile, and his gentleness always struck me as to how a person could be so pure and peaceful,” she wrote.

Paul loved drawing and watching a Korean cartoon about a baby dinosaur, Kim added.

“Paul was truly an angel on Earth — he has never hurt a single soul in his life, brought so much joy and peace to those around him, and now he’s making the society reflect on issues that have gone neglected for far too long,” Kim wrote.

“The way Paul has gone to heaven was truly horrendous and unjust, but I truly believe that Paul will bring a positive change to the safety protocols in schools for all children in the world. The Lee family has a long journey ahead. Please let us continue to carry this momentum and carry Paul in our hearts until significant measures are put in place to ensure safety for all children.”

FONTANA >> A motorist was killed early Saturday when the vehicle struck a power pole in the southern part of town, police said.

The single-vehicle crash, which occurred on Jurupa Avenue near Calabash Avenue, was reported at 2:52 a.m., said police Lt. Gary Aulis.

As of 10 a.m., the street was still closed while officers conducted an investigation into the cause of the crash.

“It did take out power to the area,” Aulis said.

Southern California Edison was on scene by 3:30 a.m. According to the company’s website, the outage impacted 59 customers. Power is estimated to be completely restored by 11 p.m.

Aulis could not provide any information about the driver.

Riding your bike from home to catch a bus or train comes with multiple issues.

Carrying a bike onto a train takes muscles. Buses only have two bike slots so if those are taken, the rider is out of luck. Leaving a bike at the bus stop or station the whole day? Even with a lock, the risk of theft is high.

To solve this problem, the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro) is opening secure bike rooms at five transit stations to encourage mass transit riders to ride bikes and leave their cars in their garages.

On Monday, the first bike hub in the Metro system opened at the El Monte Bus Station, the busiest bus depot west of Chicago with 22,000 daily boardings. For $5 a day, $12 a month or $60 a year, a person can park and lock the bike in a secure room with an attendant — sort of like a parking garage for bicycles — then proceed to the nearby bus gate.

Only bike hub members can enter the room. After hours, a scanner recognizes the member’s driver license and unlocks the door so he or she can claim the bike and ride it home. Each owner must lock his or her own bike.

With the 1,200 vehicle parking spaces at the El Monte station maxed out every weekday morning, the 56 extra bike spaces may convince people to ride their bikes and then hop a bus.

“Secure bike parking is one of the barriers to getting people to bike to transit stations,” said Dave Sotero, Metro spokesman.

Metro is planning four more bike hubs in the next three years at the following locations: Hollywood and Vine Red Line subway station; Union Station (300 bike spaces) in downtown Los Angeles; Culver City Expo light-rail station; North Hollywood Red Line subway/Orange Line busway at the renovated Lankershim Depot.

The county transportation agency will have added 700 secure-access bike spaces by 2018, Sotero said.

Next year, Metro will roll out its bike-sharing program in downtown L.A., and in 2017 in Pasadena which will mesh with the bike hubs, said board member and Duarte City Council member John Fasana.

Transportation planners call it a “multi-modal approach.”

Gene Oh, 38, owner of BikeHub, who opened his 10th bike parking station Monday in El Monte, calls it a revolution.

“This is a giant pedal toward the bike revolution beginning in Los Angeles County,” said Oh, an Oakland resident.

Oh said grants and subsidies from Metro will help with the finances the first year. He’s planning bike classes and will do flat repairs inside the bright green hub, located in the southeast entrance off Ramona Boulevard and Santa Anita Avenue near the 10 Freeway.

Certain elements are shifting Angeleno commuters to two wheels.

“We look at LA and see it is flat, and no one knows gridlock like L.A. County,” said the Bay Area native.

The revolution from cars to bikes “is waiting to happen here in L.A. County,” Oh added.

Vincent Chang, president of Bike SGV, a San Gabriel Valley bicycle club, said he’s seen some Metro flops, such as those metal bike lockers at stations. “I’ve never ever seen anyone use them,” he said.

He’s hopeful that won’t be the case with the bike hubs.

In downtown L.A., the San Gabriel Valley and the San Fernando Valley, the bicycle culture has not progressed as much as in Long Beach and Santa Monica, where existing bike hubs are crowded.

“We are still waiting for that cultural change here, where more people are utilizing multi-modal transportation,” Chang said.

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SAN BERNARDINO >> Full and empty beer bottles and cans fell out of the bed of a pickup truck driven by an allegedly drunken man who crashed into at least one Rialto police vehicle as he tried to flee from officers Monday morning.

Juan Pablo Mercado Romo, 36, was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence, assault on a peace officer and evading police, said Lt. William Wilson with the Rialto Police Department.

• Video: Lt. William Wilson with Rialto PD talks about the pursuit that ended in San Bernardino

Shortly after 7 a.m. officers were conducting a DUI patrol near Lilac Street and Rialto Avenue in Rialto when they spotted Romo in a silver Ram truck.

Officers suspected Romo may have been driving while intoxicated and tried to pull him over, Wilson said. Romo refused to pull over and sped off allegedly on the wrong side of the street at speeds reaching 90 mph, he said.

“It was a very dangerous situation,” Wilson said. “It was about to be the height of commuter traffic.”

At one point during the pursuit, one officer lost control of his unit near Foothill Boulevard and Rancho Avenue.

Romo turned east onto Fourth Street which dead ends at the Mt. Vernon Bridge. Rialto police then called the San Bernardino Police Department for help in the pursuit.

When the pursuit reached the end of the street, an officer made the decision to stop the truck with his own police unit, Wilson said.

• Photos: Drunk driver crashes into police in San Bernardino

“The driver then attempted to assault one of our other officers by crashing his vehicle and driving over one of our police units,” Wilson said.

The truck became stuck on top of the hood of the police vehicle, but Romo allegedly still refused to come out of his truck, officials said.

Officers used bean bag rounds to break out Romo’s windows and then Tased the man when he refused to cooperate.

Romo was taken to Arrowhead Regional Medical Center in Colton for treatment of minor injuries, Wilson said adding that no officers were hurt.

Beatriz Galvan a San Bernardino resident was at home when she heard the commotion from her kitchen.

“I heard a bunch of sirens and then a big bang,” she said. “Then I heard some pops and more sirens.”

The frightened woman woke up her husband, but she said they couldn’t see anything from their window.

“But when he took our daughter to school, he saw the crash. It’s a miracle no one was seriously hurt,” she said.

Wilson said Romo caused anywhere from $30,000 to $60,000 in damages to the three vehicles, one of which was only about a year old.

The incident is under investigation.

MULTAN, Pakistan >> A police official says a blast outside of a bus terminal in central Pakistan has killed at least nine people and wounded 48.

Khalid Rauf says several of the wounded from the explosion Sunday night in the city of Multan are in critical condition. He blamed the blast on a remote-controlled bomb. Another government official, Zahid Saleem, said it appeared to be a suicide attack.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

Multan lies in a region dotted with thousands of religious seminaries, with several belonging to local al-Qaida linked militant outfits.

Pakistan has long been fighting militants who want to overthrow the government to install their own harsh brand of Islamic law. Tens of thousands have been killed in more than a decade of fighting.

CHINO HILLS >> An over-sized balloon believed to be developed by Google crash-landed into a palm tree early Saturday morning, leaving neighbors startled by the contraption.

It didn’t take residents long to figure out what the white polyurethane material was that was stuck between the lawns of two homes in the 1600 block of Rancho Hills Drive.

Sheriff’s deputies came out to the site because the company that owned the balloon reported it had crash-landed, said resident Gina Hernandez.

Hernandez said she was told the device is called Project Loon and is being used to provide Internet access to rural and remote areas.

According to Google.com/Loon, the purpose is to “use a global network of high-altitude balloons to connect people in rural and remote areas who have no Internet access at all.”

By noon, crews had come to retrieve the device, but Hernandez said that all throughout the morning people had stopped to snap photos of the deflated balloon.

“Oh, people were taking pictures, and taking pictures of themselves in front of them. It was quite the spectacle,” she said.

It was shortly before 6 a.m. when Hernandez heard what sounded like a cement truck driving past the house.

“We didn’t know what it was, but it wasn’t a loud boom,” she said.

Then her husband went out to get the newspaper at 6:30 a.m.

“He came back in and I was like ‘where’s the paper?’” Hernandez said. “Then he told me there was a big balloon out in the front lawn.”

The balloon had crash-landed on a neighbor’s palm tree and parts of it had spilled into her driveway, she said.

Initially, Hernandez said she wasn’t sure what to make of the contraption and if it was safe to be near it.

“It was kind of creepy looking,” she said.

Hernandez said she was grateful the device landed on the palm tree.

“It just landed on shrubbery. Nothing was really damaged,” she said. “The trees diverted it from crashing into the homes.”

WHITTIER >> Authorities have released the identity of a 19-year-old special-needs student found dead after being left on a school bus for hours Friday afternoon.

Paramedics pronounced Hun Joon Lee of Whittier dead at the scene after he was found unresponsive in a bus parked at a Whittier Union High School District parking lot at Mulberry Drive and Greenleaf Avenue about 4:25 p.m., Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner-Coroner Lt. David Smith said. An autopsy was pending.

Lee was believed to have been left alone on the bus for hours before being discovered by the bus driver, though the exact length of time was not clear, Whittier police Officer Brad White said. The investigation is ongoing.

Superintendent Sandy Thorstensen said the incident left the district devastated. She offered condolences to Lee’s family and called for a “speedy and thorough” investigation into Lee’s death.

Lee was a student at the Sierra Education Center’s transitional program, located adjacent to the district parking lot, district officials said.

The involved bus and driver were provided by Pupil Transportation Cooperative, a Whittier-based company providing school bus services to several Whittier area school districts.

PTC representatives could not be reached for comment.

BOGOTA, Colombia >> Actor Tom Cruise flew in a helicopter across the Colombian Andes just 10 minutes before a small plane on the same flight path crashed into a jungled mountain, killing three crew members from his upcoming movie, civil aviation authorities said.

An official with the aviation agency, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the matter, said the cause of the crash Friday that killed two people and seriously injured a third is still under investigation.

Those killed were veteran Hollywood pilot Alan Purwin and Venezuelan Carlos Berl, while another American, Jimmy Lee Garland, survived. All three were experienced pilots, the official said.

They crashed while returning to the city of Medellin on the twin-engine Piper-Aerostar 600 after a day of filming with Cruise for the film “Mena,” which stars the actor as American pilot Barry Seal, a drug runner recruited in the 1980s by the CIA to try to capture the late cocaine kingpin Pablo Escobar.

Cruise, a pilot, arrived in Medellin last month flying the same 1960s-era plane, which was similar to the one Seal would have flown for Escobar’s cartel, the official said. Photos of the actor sitting in the cockpit of the US-registered plane have circulated for days in Colombia media.

On Friday, Cruise left in one of two helicopters transporting crew from the colonial town of Santa Fe de Antioquia at around 5 p.m. local time. When they arrived at Medellin’s Olaya Herrera airport with nightfall approaching, and the plane didn’t show up, they alerted air traffic controllers, the official said.

A plane overhead located the downed aircraft just below a high ridge thanks to a distress signal, allowing rescuers to arrive to the crash site quickly and rush Garland to a hospital in Medellin, where he was in critical but stable condition.

“We were very lucky to get there so quickly,” said the official.

Although there were no reports of bad weather in Santa Fe de Antioquia when the plane took off, the official described the normally 10-minute flight as a “bungee jump” or “roller coaster” requiring a skilled pilot to quickly take the plane from near sea level to a height of 3,000 meters, or 9,800 feet, to clear the Andes before descending sharply for the approach into the steep valley surrounding Medellin.

The official said the three pilots had flown the route at least a half-dozen times in recent days but were flying without the assistance of instruments and could have been disoriented by heavy clouds that regularly form near the crest of the Andes. When filming in other parts of the country, such as the Amazon, the crew of “Mena” had heeded authorities recommendation they have a Colombian pilot on board, the official said.

Colombia’s jagged terrain, heavy rainfall and long, empty distances makes it one of the most dangerous places in the world for aviators. Medellin’s Olaya Herrera airport has been the site of numerous accidents since the 1935 crash that killed famed Argentine tango singer Carlos Gardel. It closes at night and allows only domestic flights.

Cruise was able to land there on Aug. 20 because his flight originated in Barranquilla, along the country’s Caribbean coast, and he was accompanied by a Colombian co-pilot, the official said.

Garland is a flight instructor and manager of a regional airport near Atlanta. A representative at the Cherokee County Airport, who declined to be identified out of respect for her boss’ privacy, told The Associated Press that the producers of “Mena” shot several flight scenes at the facility and were so impressed with Garland’s professionalism as a flying double for Cruise that they brought him to Colombia to continue filming there.

The Colombian official said Garland underwent three operations overnight and a specialist from the U.S. was arriving to assist in his recovery.

Cruise’s spokeswoman, Amanda Lundberg, had no comment on Friday’s accident and the film’s local and US-based producers did not reply to emails and phone calls seeking comment.

Purwin was founder and president of Van Nuys-based Helinet Technologies. On the company’s website, he’s described as “one of the top film pilots of his generation” with a list of credits from television and major Hollywood movies such as “Transformers,” ‘’Pearl Harbor” and “Pirates of the Caribbean.”

“There are no words that can express our heartache for we have lost one of the world’s greatest helicopter pilots and one of aviation’s greatest leaders,” Helinet CEO Steve Gatena said in a statement posted on the company’s website.

In his last tweet sent Wednesday, Purwin expressed joy at flying between 12,000-foot peaks and posted a picture of a plane trailed by a helicopter landing at Santa Fe de Antioquia’s dirt runway.

Associated Press writers Derrik J. Lang in Los Angeles and Jacobo Garcia in Bogota contributed to this report.

Throughout his 18-year career as a high school head football coach, Kirk Bruich has been through plenty of stressful times.

So, what’s been the greatest situation he’s endured?

Was it last year’s CIF State Division II championship game against Clayton Valley Charter? It was white-knuckle time as the Wildcats won the first state championship for a San Bernardino County public school. Or is it during a goal-line call, whether offensively or defensively? Either way, such pressure situations can determine the outcome of any game.

However stressful those events may be, it’s within a coach’s comfort zone. There’s not much that will surprise them, thanks to countless hours of practice and film study.

For Bruich, and the majority of his colleagues, it’s the moments that they have no control over that can cause tension. The surprising part is that it occurs hours before a game, and usually miles from the field. It’s the bus ride, especially to a contest away from the area that requires such exact planning it can resemble a battle plan.

“I’m constantly looking at my watch,” said Bruich about a road trip, such as the one his Redlands East Valley team took Friday night to Ventura. “We have a routine before every game and we want to stick to our schedule. It’s important to us to arrive early, get ready for a game without being rushed.

“You do your best to allow enough time for traffic, but who knows? We’ve had some close calls in the past.”

Like showing up less than an hour before a 7:30 p.m. CIF Southern Section playoff game in Riverside, despite leaving campus nearly three hours beforehand. Or, in an extreme case encountered by another local team, cutting locked gates to reach an alternative freeway route during a massive Friday night traffic snarl.

REV has spent this season on the road. The Wildcarts’ first game was in West Hills against Chaminade (which paid for transportation in exchange for a home game), and Friday’s contest against St. Bonaventure was at Ventura College. Next week, the Wildcats will journey to Moreno Valley to play Rancho Verde.

However, REV falls short of being the King of the Road. Locally, that title belongs to Excelsior Charter in Victorville. Last week, the Eagles traveled nearly 200 miles south to face Calipatria, and will head north to Mammoth early next month. In fact, the shortest road trip was the season-opening hike to Big Bear. Other games include trips to Frazier Mountain, Acton Vasquez and L.A. Animo South.

Excelsior is a school without a league at the moment, waiting for CIF realignment in 2016. Rather than depriving students of the opportunity to play, the administration opted to play a free-lance schedule, a subtle way of saying road games. It’s an expensive proposition for a small school (780 students) that must pay for the charter buses, which cost $2,000 alone to go to Mammoth.

Charter buses are the exception. It’s usually the yellow school bus. However, having to go to Palmdale in the season opener during an extremely warm day, Upland opted to use charter transportation with air-conditioning rather than the yellow alternative.

In the days of tightening budgets, even yellow buses are somewhat in danger. There are some local districts that have trimmed the number of buses, or others than can’t transport athletic teams before a certain hour (usually about 4 p.m.) so students can be whisked home.

REV is the largest school in the area without its own stadium, requiring a road trip each week. Whether it’s home games at Citrus Valley or Redlands High, it’s a trip across town.

Bruich can vividly recall his buses not showing up for a game at Redlands. It’s a nightmare for a head coach, but a liability hurdle for the athletic director, another position Bruich holds.

As such, it’s not just about loading players, cheerleaders and band members upon buses. Bruich’s staff has to take everything it might need/want, packing a separate vehicle each week, a three-hour process designed not to leave anything behind. Think of an item a team will use and there’s an extra included on the list, from headphones, clipboards, spare mouthguards, extra tape, training tables, extension cords, etc, etc. One never knows what may be needed.

At REV, defensive coordinator Chalen Tessitore is the one in charge of transporting game equipment, often referring to the initial lessons issued by the late Ron Gelfand at Fontana when he and Bruich were on the team. Tessitore also has another critical role long before the game. He rides ahead of the buses, updating Bruich with information along the travel route.

On Friday, REV left campus at noon (with a packed lunch). After 21/2 hours on the road, the team stopped off in Oxnard for a team meal (prepaid at HomeTown Buffet) before arriving on site at 4 p.m. and taking a traditional field walk at 5:45. The team was scheduled to arrive back on campus at 1:15 a.m. Saturday.

Each Friday afternoon, usually before the weekend getaway rush, yellow buses criss cross Southern California en route to a game. On board, a coach’s stomach is churning as he keeps a close eye on the time. Some things never change.