Family grieves Del Mar student killed in Nice attack

del mar — A UC Berkeley student from Del Mar who was killed in last week’s terrorist attack in Nice was the center of his parents’ lives, and his father’s best friend and surfing buddy, his uncle said Monday.

Twenty-year-old Nicolas Leslie was studying abroad in France and soaking up the experience as the only child of an Italian mother and an American father whose family hailed from Spain. His parents, Paola and Conrad Leslie, were in Nice on Monday to claim his body.

“He was loved every day of his life,” said Leslie’s uncle, Alberto Leslie, from the family’s Del Mar home. “That was the joy of those two. They lived for that child.”

Leslie was one of 84 people killed Thursday when a man police have identified as Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel drove a box truck through a huge Bastille Day celebration, running over hundreds.

Leslie was not immediately named among the victims, and his family and friends desperately held out hope that he would be found alive. His disappearance prompted a massive search and mobilized the UC Berkeley community, which had recently lost another student in an overseas terror attack.

On Sunday, however, university officials made the heartbreaking announcement that Leslie’s body had been recovered. Two other Americans — Texans Sean Copeland and his 11-year-old son, Brodie — were also killed in the attack.

A vigil in Leslie’s honor held at the university’s campus Monday afternoon was expected to draw hundreds.

Leslie — who was born in Milan, Italy, and graduated from Torrey Pines High School — was one of 85 Berkeley students participating in a summer entrepreneurship program in Nice. He was majoring in environmental sciences and was eager to follow in the footsteps of his father, an environmental engineer, his uncle said.

“He wanted to do everything his dad did, everything,” he said. “He was just a beautiful kid. He was an angel.”

Photos on his Facebook page, now switched to memorial status, showed him snorkeling, spear-fishing and surfing. Father and son were inseparable, and shared a love of the ocean.

“They kite-surfed, they wind-surfed, they did everything together,” Alberto Leslie said. “He lived for that boy.”

Although Leslie enjoyed a charmed life filled with travel and recreation, he didn’t take his privileges for granted, his uncle said. When he was accepted to Berkeley, the then-teenager worried about overextending his parents’ generosity, and vowed to take care of them after he graduated.

“They would give them their arms, but he would say I don’t want that,” his uncle said. “There wasn’t a lack of anything in that home, and he had everything he needed. But he never went overboard.”

Former Torrey Pines student Richard Rosales said he had known Leslie since fifth grade, when they both attended Del Mar Heights Elementary School. The two also practiced lacrosse together in high school on occasion, and Rosales said Leslie was friendly and athletic.

“What I remember about Nick, was he had a really big heart,” said Rosales, 21. “Every time I think about him, I remember him smiling. It’s what allowed him to have so many friends. He was always kind, he was always helping people.”

Alberto Leslie said his brother and sister-in-law were aware of the risks of European travel, but the pair recognized their son’s growing independence and trusted his good sense to keep him safe. After the attack, they flew to France in hopes of reuniting with their son, but were devastated to learn of his death.

“It’s unimaginable to have the hope that you’re getting on an airplane to see your child, and getting there and having them tell you he didn’t make it,” Alberto Leslie said. “I ask that people send light and love to them, because they’re in a very dark place. I just want them to know that people are thinking of him.”

Confusion in the aftermath of the attack fueled the hope that Leslie might have survived. Several of his friends in Nice had reported that they saw him dodge the oncoming truck and run away, and saw him after the attack. Another friend said he appeared to be active on Facebook Messenger. The sightings and social media activity gave hope that Leslie was unaccounted for but safe, and merely unreachable due to a phone with a depleted battery.

At a daily briefing Monday, the State Department said it appears that the Americans who were killed all died during the attack rather than from injuries.

“I believe that it was during the actual attack,” spokesman Mark Toner said.

Berkeley officials said Sunday the university learned about the death from the FBI. The FBI said Monday it could not comment about Leslie.

Another Berkeley student, Tarishi Jain, was killed in the July 1 terrorist attack at a cafe in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Jain was a part of a group of students who were interning at the school’s Subir and Malini Chowdhury Center for Bangladesh Studies. A total of 29 people including two police officers and five attackers, died in that assault.

[email protected] (760) 529-4941 Twitter@deborahsbrennan

[email protected] (619) 293-1841 Twitter@jptstewart