15-Year-Old Dies After Crossing in Front of Slow-Moving Train on the Way to School: 'He Was So Kind'

A community in Texas is in mourning after a 15-year-old boy died when he crossed in front of a slow-moving train while he walked to school.

Sergio Rodriguez, a sophomore at Milby High School in Houston’s East End neighborhood, was killed on Monday, Dec. 9, at approximately 7:35 a.m. local time, a spokesman with the Houston Police Department said, according to multiple local news outlets.

“The train was in motion as he tried to cross in front of the train.” Sgt. Bill Elsbury told Fox affiliate KRIV-TV. “That's the information that we're getting from a couple of eyewitnesses here.”

Police were working with Union Pacific Railroad police to get video footage, but Elsbury called Rodriguez’s death “a tragic accident.”

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A representative with the Houston Police Department did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for additional information.

In a statement, Union Pacific said it "shares Houston's grief" following the event in which Rodriguez "made a tragic decision to try and outrun a moving train."

"We want to remind students and others to only cross train tracks at designated crossings and never ignore train horns or the lights and safety gates," the railroad company said. "Our hearts go out to the family, students and train crew who witnessed this terrible incident."

Authorities said railroad crossing lights and arms were functioning normally at the time of the incident, and Rodriguez was crossing in a non-designated area, away from the crossing monitored by police, NBC affiliate KPRC-TV reported.

The railroad tracks, across the street from the high school, have been a decades-long impediment for pedestrians, according to those who live in the area and attend the school.

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Trains frequently stop for lengthy periods of time, and students have been documented crossing over and under the trains in order to get to school, CBS affiliate KHOU-TV reported.

"I've had concerns that a child would get hurt for a long time, because it's very dangerous," one mother told KRIV-TV.

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In the wake of the junior varsity football player’s death, his friends and family are remembering Rodriguez as a “sweet boy," one fellow sophomore recalled to the station.

“He was so kind, smart, funny,” Rodriguez’s sister, Cecilia, wrote on a GoFundMe. “Full of life and a student dedicated to football. He was taken away from us too soon."

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