ODESSA, Texas —
It wasn’t just family and friends that came out to the vigil of Alex Bingham but also members of the community who wanted to show their support for the family and even those who he left quite the impression on despite only knowing him briefly.
“It's amazing, for one for him, it just goes to show how amazing he was, how much he was loved, the impact he left on anybody he came across. Just hearing stories from, back in the day till now. I'm just like, Oh my gosh. And then I mean random people's posts saying hey, he helped me on the side of the road one time, hey, he was my favorite customer at Walk-Ons, hey, we remember him from Roadhouse. Like just to know that everywhere he went, he left an impact like his, light just shined, and it was amazing. And then for my daughter, my grandbabies to know that they have the community backing them, they have the communities support, they have the love all the way around it's amazing to see that,” said Yvette Hernandez, Bingham's mother-in-law.
Hernandez said his love and kindness knew no bounds and, her family, will still be feeling it through those who knew him even with him no longer being there.
“Man, this kid was loved, this kid was loved, and because he was so loved we know that my baby is going to be loved, his babies are going to be loved and it's going to be, I mean, a long journey, but we feel like in the long run, you know, it's going to be OK,” Hernandez continued.
She wants what happened to her son-in-law to be a reminder that drunk driving doesn’t just put the driver behind the wheel at risk.
“Don't drink and drive, because at the end of the day its innocent lives getting destroyed and it's a domino effect. Not just one person got hurt here, I mean so many people got hurt... He was a consequence of somebody's bad decision, and he was a victim of somebody's bad decision, and he should have never been a victim. He came outside to protect his home, he came outside to make sure his family inside felt safe and he died in the process of that and that should have never happened to him. So, stop drinking and driving, stop it, because you're ruining innocent lives when you get behind that wheel and you're drinking and you think, oh, it's ok., it's not ok and this is the outcome of that,” Hernandez added.