Angel Luis Torres III wasn’t an ordinary sports fan. He immersed himself in statistics, memorizing data on players from the major leagues all the way down to the local high school teams.
He and his mother, Christy Hernandez Torres, shared a passion for sports. They took part in fantasy football, but baseball was Angel’s true love. He was looking forward to their trip to Clearwater, Florida in March to attend the Phillies spring training.
Angel also planned on traveling to Puerto Rico this year; he had not visited since he was a child. But instead, his family found themselves traveling up to Philadelphia to say their final goodbyes.
On Dec. 5, 2021 Angel and Brian Madera, who had been friends since middle school, watched college football then they hit an after-hours club in the 3200 block of Front Street in Fairhill.
At about 4:30 a.m. Angel and Brian were exiting the club when a blue or green Toyota Rav 4 with dark tinted windows drove by, firing an automatic weapon. Angel and Brian, who were both 22 years old, were fatally shot. A third man, who is 21, was also shot but survived. Police have not made any arrests.
“We want justice for him,” Donna Hernandez, Angel’s aunt, said. “We’re not the only family struggling with this in Philadelphia. It’s an epidemic. Angel would fight hard for justice if this happened to someone else, so I just want people to keep that in mind. He would fight for them.”
Angel was born Jan. 22, 1999 in Philadelphia to parents Christy Hernandez Torres and Angel Luis Torres Jr. He had an older brother, Ivan Maestre, and a younger sister, Alexandra Torres.
Angel lived in Hunting Park until he was about 10, then the family moved to Willow Grove, Montgomery County. After that, they relocated to Fox Chase in Northeast Philadelphia.
Upon graduating from Northeast High School, Angel worked for a few different companies, including Pepsi. At the time of his death, he was a night shift warehouse employee at Sysco, where he was well-liked by his co-workers.
Ewing Lopez, one of his colleagues, said that Angel “had an infectious smile. “No matter how bad my day was, if I glanced at Angel, he gave me that smile, and I would realize I was smiling, too. Angel had a great heart. My job isn’t the same without my little brother. I miss him and always will.”
People were drawn to Angel because of his sense of humor and playful nature. In the eulogy she wrote for Angel, his cousin Cecily Carrasquillo described him as “the funniest and silliest person I know.”
Angel would send her videos of himself singing and dancing, and “if I told him to do something as a joke, like squeezing into one of my dresses and posing the way I do in my Instagram pictures, he’d do it just to see me laugh,” Cecily said.
Although Angel loved to kid around and didn’t take himself too seriously, he was a serious person, Donna explained. He meant what he said, and he was a gentle soul.
Angel and Donna spent a lot of time together. She remembers watching the “Shrek” movies and eating Oreos with him—he would devour the pack of cookies in no time.
Donna lives in Brooklyn, and when he’d visit, they would go to see all the landmarks related to his favorite artist, Biggie Smalls: the famous mural as well as the areas where he grew up and hung out.
But beyond that, Angel didn’t have much love for New York.
“He was a Philly boy through and through,” Donna said.
Angel was loyal to all of the Philly sports teams, but he respected standout players on other teams, like LeBron James and Alex Rodriquez. He began keeping track of sports stats as a child, and his recollection of numbers was remarkable.
“He was an amazing statistician. He was a genius with numbers,” Donna said. “Because his passion was sports, it made it so much easier for him to remember stats. He always wanted to know who was the best, and he always wanted to be the best at what he did.”
Angel lived in an apartment in Frankford, not far from where his parents and grandparents live. He was a frequent visitor, particularly on Football Sundays, and he loved anything that his grandmother, Norma Garcia, cooked for breakfast.
He and his grandmother were inseparable, Donna said. Angel referred to her as his best friend, and they’d go food shopping together, get haircuts and do laundry side-by-side.
In recent months, Angel’s ambition was to purchase his own home, and he was in the process of evaluating different areas and neighborhoods. He had a girlfriend, and ultimately he wanted his own family, but not right away.
In the meantime, he was an involved uncle to his brother Ivan’s two children, Cerena Scannel and Jaxon Maestre.
Angel is also survived by several aunts, uncles, cousins and his grandfather, Angel L. Torres Sr. He was preceded in death by two grandparents, Angela E. Torres and Eusebio (Junior) Hernandez, who loved him dearly.
He is laid to rest at Greenmount Cemetery.
A reward of up to $25,000 if available to anyone that comes forward with information that leads to the arrest and conviction of the person responsible for Angel’s murder. Anonymous calls can be submitted by calling the Citizens Crime Commission at 215-546-TIPS.
Resources are available for people and communities that have endured gun violence in Philadelphia. Click here for more information.
