Las Lomas Suffers Another Tragedy With Deaths of Two Former Students in Overnight Car Accident

The mood was somber at Las Lomas High School Friday as news came that two popular former students were among three people killed early in the morning in a rollover car accident outside Sacramento. 

The former students were the older brother of a current student and one who attended Las Lomas as a freshman and sophomore and who would have been a senior this year, according to Las Lomas administrators. The CHP identified the deceased Las Lomas alums as Maurice Waters II, 20, and Christian T. Bishop, 18.

They were among three people who were fatally injured in a crash at about 3 a.m. Friday in a field east of Sacramento.

The news hit students, teachers, administrators and staff hard. 

The campus is still dealing , who died in February while rafting along one of the creeks that run through downtown Walnut Creek.  Las Lomas students were also deeply affected by the suicide of Allison Bayliss, a 15-year-old from San Ramon Valley Highfrom the Golden Gate Bridge on May 23. 

The news of the car accident came the week before the start of finals and before graduation. School officials arranged for grief counselors to be on campus. They also closed the library and reserved it for students who wanted to leave class and find a quiet place to be reflect on the loss of their friends. 

In an email to the Las Lomas High community, principal Matt Campbell said that students "were in a state of shock and disbelief over this news."

"Their feelings of grief and loss will undoubtedly continue through this weekend and beyond," he added. "I encourage you to engage in conversation with your student as they work through this difficult time and year."

Both were said to be well known and liked among current students. 

"I will always remember you," wrote one student on a table set up outside the library and topped with orange butcher paper. The table was created for students to send messages to Maurice Waters, the older brother of Marquis Waters, the star running back for the Knights' varsity football team.  "You were such a great guy and always kept people laughing." Another student wrote that she didn't know Maurice but that she's still crying over his loss. 

Those who left messages on a second table, set up for Christian Bishop, remembered him as one of "nicest, funniest, and most kind-hearted" people ever. 

On Friday morning, the two former students were in a Mazda Millenia that was traveling on a road near Sloughhouse, between Sacramento and Rancho Murietta, the Sacramento Bee reported, citing the California Highway Patrol. 

The driver and three passengers had apparently been in Sacramento at a nightclub earlier in the night. They were traveling with a group in another car headed eastbound on Highway 16, bound for a casino in Jackson.

For an unknown reason, the group in the lead car turned right on Sloughhouse Road, then turned around and headed back north, driving fast. The car hit a dip in the road as it approached Highway 16.  

When the car came up over the rise, the vehicle missed the turn and ended up rolling into a field, the Bee said. 

The group in the trailing car found the wrecked car down in a ditch. The passenger in the right front seat, who was the only one wearing a seatbelt, was transported to UC Davis Medical Center in critical condition, the Bee and the CHP said. The driver, 26-year-old Stephen G. Johnson of Rancho Cordova,  was ejected from the car and died at the scene, as did Waters and Bishop, who were passengers in the back seat. 

The CHP is investigating whether alcohol was involved in the crash, the Bee said.