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Two women console each other at a memorial following the death of Long Beach resident Lavell Mann, 33, and his two young children over the weekend. Photos by Stephanie Perez.

More than 100 people gathered at a sunset memorial in Signal Hill on Wednesday where family and friends remembered a 33-year-old Long Beach man and his two young children, who were recently killed in a car crash over the weekend.

Lavell Mann and his 9-month-old son Legend and 3-year-old daughter Logan were killed when he rear-ended a gas tanker in his Jeep, leading to a three-vehicle crash on the westbound Artesia (91) Freeway at about 1:00AM Saturday.


 

“I am blessed by the community here, our fitness family, and from the bottom of my heart, thank you all for being here,” said Alisha Lopez, owner of No Limits Sports and Fitness Academy where Mann worked as a trainer and where the memorial took place.

Family members also spoke at the event, calling Mann a hard worker and a family man.

“He went to school and he graduated, he went to college, played football and graduated and then he came out and still worked these grounds very hard,” and aunt of Mann’s said. “He loved hard. He loved his family, he loved his wife, he loved his mother, he loved his siblings, he loved his family, so he is love. By standing here and seeing everybody it is a testimony that he was love, that he worked hard and loved hard.”

A GoFundMe page set up to help with funeral arrangements has raised nearly $43,000 of a requested $60,000.

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Stephanie Rivera is the community engagement editor. Reach her at [email protected] or on Twitter at @StephRivera88.