Willow Vandoloski stares into the phone camera, a solemn expression on her face as she recounts the story of her brother’s death.

“On March 24, 2023, my brother, Jesse Johansmeyer, was run over and left to die on a dirt road in Hatfield, Massachusetts,” Vandoloski states in the video, which has garnered more than 350,000 views on the social media app TikTok. “For the past two years my family has been silenced, but today, that changes.”

More than two years after Johansmeyer, a 2022 Northampton High School graduate, died after he was struck by a pickup truck leaving a bonfire party in Hatfield, his family has decided to go public with what happened on that night. A TikTok page titled “Jessesjustice” has gained more than 10,000 followers since its creation last week, with Vandoloski protesting the legal outcome of the case and to advocate for a new law that aims to prevent such future tragedies.

“I was thinking I’d reach maybe a few hundred local people,” Vandoloski said in a Gazette interview. “When it started to blow up, I was like ‘OK, now we’re getting big.’ To sit in front of the camera and then talk to social media like that was nerve-wracking, but I knew it had to be done.”

In the videos, Vandoloski describes how Johansmeyer, who was 19 at the time of his death, had been at the bonfire party in Hatfield when someone alerted the partygoers that a police officer may be on the way to break up the event. In the ensuing moments of people fleeing, one got into a pickup truck and struck Jesse as they were leaving.

Vandoloski states the driver of the truck had been made aware they had hit a person, and others on the scene took videos of Johansmeyer as he lay on the ground. But it was 45 minutes until someone called 911 and Johansmeyer was taken to Cooley Dickinson Hospital. He was later taken to Baystate Medical Center, and died from his injuries the next morning.

“Seeing Jesse lifeless, seeing him in that hospital bed, was something I’d never wish upon anybody,” Vandoloski states. “We were shell-shocked. We had no idea with what we were even dealing with.”

Almost a year after the incident, the driver of the truck was charged by the Northwestern district attorney’s office with negligent motor vehicle homicide and leaving the scene of an accident. Because the person charged was a minor, details of the case are not open to the public. Vandoloski states in the videos, however, that at the conclusion of the trial the driver was found “not delinquent,” the juvenile court equivalent of “not guilty.”

“The case may be over, but nothing about this feels finished,” Vandoloski says. “For more than two years, we were silenced. We were told to be patient, we were told to trust the process, but that process failed us.”

With the case now closed, Vandoloski said she felt obligated to publicly speak out about what happened to her brother.

“He has friends and even distant family members that never got to know what actually happened to him that night,” she said. “I felt that using social media would be a good way for me to get that word out there.”

The DA’s office declined to comment on the case, citing the private nature of juvenile court cases.

Pushing for new law

In going public with the story of the untimely death that befell their son and brother, the family also hopes to advocate for a new state law that would legally require bystanders to call 911 if they witness a medical emergency involving a serious bodily injury.

Dubbed “Jesse’s Law,” it would subject civil fines and misdemeanor charges for failure to report life-threatening injuries, although it would exempt individuals if calling would put them in danger or if emergency responders are already present.

Darlene Thorpe, Johansmeyer’s mother, said in an interview that had such a law been in place two years ago, her son may still be alive.

“Had someone dialed 911, everything could be completely different. Jesse could still be here with us,” Thorpe said. “If we do accomplish this, and if it can save just one life, everything we’re trying to do here is worth it, because I would not want to see another family go through what we have had to go through.”

Such kinds of “Good Samaritan” laws have precedent: similar laws exist in the nearby states of Rhode Island and Vermont as well as in Minnesota. A petition posted on the website change.org by the family to pass the law has obtained more than 6,000 signatures as of Friday. Other friends of Johansmeyer have reached out to the family, sending their own videos and sharing how he had impacted their lives.

“It’s just heartbreaking, because I knew Jesse knew a lot of people and impacted them, but to hear them speak about him just makes everything we’re doing now that much more meaningful,” Thorpe said. “It just hurts that much more though, to know that Jesse could still be here.”

Vandoloski said the family has been in touch with state Sen. Jo Comerford regarding the legislation. Comerford’s office confirmed there had been communication between her office and the family.

“We’re just going to keep up with the pressure of getting signatures on our petition, just getting the word out there,” Vandoloski said. “We’re still in the very beginning stages of the petition itself, and getting this law moving forward.”

Alexander MacDougall can be reached at amacdougall@gazettenet.com.