Zach Parsons

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• Sign the guest book for Zachary Ian Parsons

The community will gather today to mourn a Franklin County High School student who was killed Monday in a horrific car crash.

Zach Parsons' family described him Wednesday as someone with diverse interests and loves, including animals, Air Force JROTC, the outdoors, writing music and following the band Insane Clown Posse, creating video games and fixing computers.

"I love him like he was my own son," said James Parsons, Zach Parsons' paternal uncle.

On Wednesday, Virginia State Police investigators were still analyzing the crash that took the life of Parsons, 17, and injured several other people, including three of his classmates.

"This is an ongoing criminal investigation, and it will be ongoing for a while," state police 1st Sgt. M.L. Bailey said.

The family will receive friends from 4 to 6 p.m. and a service will be held for Parsons at 6 p.m. today at the chapel at Flora Funeral Service & Cremation Center in Rocky Mount. The Franklin County High School Air Force ROTC will perform a salute at the service.

Monday afternoon, Parsons and two other boys, all 17, were passengers in a 2000 Mercury Cougar that was being driven by a 17-year-old female classmate. They were northbound, near the 1900 block of Booker T. Washington Highway.

About 3 miles from Franklin County High School, the Mercury rounded a curve, crossed the centerline, collided with a Scion, hit a Dodge Dakota pickup head-on, then continued off the road to the left and struck a closed gas station, Bailey said. The impact of the car into the building knocked part of the structure into two parked and unoccupied cars.

Parsons, who was wearing his seat belt, died in the crash. The driver of the Mercury and the two back-seat passengers were taken to Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital, and neither their names nor conditions were available Wednesday.

After being sideswiped, the Scion went off the road and struck a tree, but its driver, Jason Beavers, 28, of Collinsville did not need to be hospitalized.

The driver of the Dodge, Jonathan Hall, 26, was hospitalized but his condition has not yet been released.

Bailey said speed appears to have been a factor in the wreck but would not say how fast the Mercury was traveling at the time of the crash.

It's an incident that's left the community, including Parsons' family and classmates, in shock, they say.

Parsons would visit his uncle, James Parsons, and grandmother, Rose Parsons, in Kannapolis, N.C., every few months, they said.

"Him and his sister would come down and stay with me from the time they were just little things," Rose Parsons said. "He was always just a really good little boy, never caused anybody any problems."

He loved animals, including his dog, Summer, and the family's four cats, which is why the family has asked that donations in Zach Parsons' memory be made to Planned Pethood, a low-cost spay and neuter clinic in Rocky Mount, his grandmother said.

Zach Parsons had been talking about joining the Air Force after graduation when Rose Parsons last saw him, just before Christmas, she said.

Although Zach Parsons had wanted to pursue a career in the Air Force, he could have also made a living as a graphic artist or designer and often helped others fix computers, James Parsons said. He also wrote music that seemed like it came from a much older person, he said.

"I had really intelligent adult conversations with him," James Parsons said. "He was wiser than a lot of kids his age, but at the same time had the happy-go-lucky little kid in him."

Zach Parsons was a leader, but also a joker, said retired Air Force Lt. Col. William Carter, the senior aerospace instructor at Franklin County High School. "He was a real outgoing guy, but he had it together," Carter said.

Zach Parsons joined the program his freshman year, and had earned the rank of senior noncommissioned officer and cadet master sergeant, Carter said. A member of the JROTC drill team, Zach Parsons mentored younger students and helped the program win an inspection award recently, Carter said.

"You go through an event like this, you have to learn something from it," Carter said. "They've asked why do these things happen, and I think we can maybe use this as a learning tool to say, maybe we don't know why this happened right now, but it happens for a reason."

Zach Parsons' death also brought back memories and discussion of another JROTC tragedy, Carter said. Students have been talking about Alexander Ernandes, a former Franklin County High Air Force JROTC member who was killed in January 2011. Jerrold Thomas Greene III was sentenced in November to life plus 53 years in prison for Ernandes' slaying. A memorial bench was dedicated to Ernandes on Friday.

"One of the kids said, 'This has really enlightened me, because we just had the Ernandes tragedy ... that this is truly a family,'" Carter said.

The crash has also helped to bring many other Franklin County High students together.

"The kids are coming together, and they've been creating posters where they can leave messages for the families," Carter said. "I think they're brainstorming about what to do, and tomorrow is a big step with the memorial service."