“My brother was big on loyalty,” said Victoria Angeles, the younger sister of Xavier Bautista, who was tragically killed last weekend. 

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In the early hours of Saturday, July 4, Bautista was shot and killed near Broadway and Norfolk in Cambridge, a few blocks away from where his mother, Gladys Angeles, lives. “We’ve lived here our whole lives, and so it’s a lot to know that he died right there,” Victoria Angeles said, sitting in the living room of her mother’s apartment. On a wall across the room hung a photo of her mother holding Xavier at age two.

Bautista died near Sennott Park, where his mother took him as a baby, where he took his own son.

Bautista was born in Cambridge, went to school at Fletcher Maynard Academy and Cambridge Rindge and Latin, and worked for the city at the Department of Public Works. While Bautista lived in Pawtucket, R.I., with his fiancee Demetris Grimsley and their five-year-old son, “his life was essentially still in Cambridge,” said Victoria Angeles.

Bautista and Grimsley met in 2016, and they were engaged to be married next year. “We haven’t stopped talking … since the day we met,” Grimsley said. “Xavier was a really great partner.” 

He was well-regarded at his job, said Kristen Kelleher, a spokesperson at DPW, who said via email “Xavier’s coworkers described him as hardworking, friendly, and always reliable and ready to help.” Bautista worked in the Solid Waste division, and part of his job was to take care of public spaces. Bautista wasn’t originally going to work on the Fourth, but he was called in to work overtime. 

“He loved Cambridge,” Gladys Angeles said. 

Loving father, devoted son

Most of all, Bautista loved his family, especially his son. 

Bautista had many close friends, but “his first best friend was his son,” said Grimsley. “They were best friends.”

“[My son] always wants to do everything with his dad. He can’t wait for him to get home. He can’t wait for him to wake up,” Grimsley said.

In the days after Bautista’s death, friends and visitors told stories about how the first thing Bautista spoke about when he saw them was always his son.

“He was the proudest father,” said Victoria Angeles.

Bautista also doted on his mother, whom he told everything to, especially how much he loved her. “He was a mama’s boy for sure,” Victoria Angeles said. “Loved his mama.”

“His hugs were like a bear,” said Gladys Angeles, translated from Spanish by her daughter.

“We used to laugh when we were kids, he would always pick her up and she hated it,” Victoria Angeles said. “He was always very loving towards our mom.”

Every year on Valentine’s Day, Bautista would buy flowers, a card and chocolates for his mother and sister. “He felt like he was the man of the house,” Victoria Angeles said. 

Bautista was there for his family even when he was on the clock. If he ever drove by his mother in the street, he would pick her up in his work truck and take her wherever she needed to go.   

“He was also just very goofy,” Victoria Angeles said. “He was just playful. He liked to have good energy in the room. He didn’t like to be sad.”

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“He was a very sincere and honest person,” she added.

Creative career aspirations

“Not only was Xavier a funny guy, a goofy guy dedicated to his family, Xavier was also secretly creative,” Grimsley said. “He would think about film concepts all the time and different ways that he could communicate a story.”

Bautista was interested in screenwriting, and had a script he had been working on for several years. “Maybe one day it’ll get put out there,” Grimsley said. “But for now, it’s ours.”

“One thing I really want people to know is that there [has] never been a time or reason to think that he was involved in anything or that there was any inkling of him deserving anything like this. I don’t think anybody deserves to die like that, but he was just not involved in anything for someone to be looking for him or [any] of that,” Victoria Angeles said. 

“He never did anything wrong,” said Casey Torres Angeles, Bautista’s cousin. “The closest thing to wrong he did was just … joking too much.”

Bautista recently sent his mom, who dislikes tattoos, a photo doctored to show one on his face. When he saw her later, he teased her by putting his hand over the ‘tattoo’ until revealing his prank. Torres Angeles added he wished there would be

Support for the family

“He didn’t deserve this,” said Grimsley. “He deserves for his story to be told from the mountain tops.”

According to Victoria Angeles, the best ways to support the family are to donate to the GoFundMe set up by Torres Angeles for funeral and burial costs, and the SupportNow set up by Grimsley for their son. 

“Our family is just looking for resources for certain things, and also privacy at the same time. It’s a lot to have to grieve publicly,” Victoria Angeles said. “I think people need to be mindful [that] we didn’t choose for this to be public… so just be respectful of that and my family.”

Most of all, Gladys Angeles wants justice for her son. “They killed a good person, a person that wasn’t doing anything,” she said, translated by her daughter. 

“I just really hope that the police are doing their job,” Victoria Angeles added. 

“He just cared so much about the people in his life,” Victoria Angeles said. “He was a protector.”

Grimsley said she wishes “that senseless violence would stop. I have a five-year-old who shouldn’t feel the way he feels right now.”

The Cambridge Police Department asked anyone with information about Bautista’s shooting to call (617) 349-3300. Tips can be shared anonymously via phone, text or email, to do so follow instructions at the Submit an Anonymous Crime Tip page on its site.  

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