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William Shawn Pizarro, 19, a Navy aviation machinist mate at Naval Air Station Lemoore, died in a vehicle crash in a small town just south of Modesto, Calif., on March 27, 2021.

William Shawn Pizarro, 19, a Navy aviation machinist mate at Naval Air Station Lemoore, died in a vehicle crash in a small town just south of Modesto, Calif., on March 27, 2021. (GoFundMe)

William Shawn Pizarro, 19, a Navy aviation machinist mate at Naval Air Station Lemoore, died in a vehicle crash in a small town just south of Modesto, Calif., on March 27, 2021.

William Shawn Pizarro, 19, a Navy aviation machinist mate at Naval Air Station Lemoore, died in a vehicle crash in a small town just south of Modesto, Calif., on March 27, 2021. (GoFundMe)

William Shawn Pizarro, 19, a Navy aviation machinist mate at Naval Air Station Lemoore, died in a vehicle crash in a small town just south of Modesto, Calif., on March 27, 2021.

William Shawn Pizarro, 19, a Navy aviation machinist mate at Naval Air Station Lemoore, died in a vehicle crash in a small town just south of Modesto, Calif., on March 27, 2021. (GoFundMe)

MODESTO, Calif. — A 19-year-old sailor died in a vehicle crash south of Modesto, Calif., shortly before midnight Saturday, local officials said Tuesday.

William Shawn Pizarro, of Newman, Calif., died as a result of the collision on the 3500 block of West Monte Vista Avenue in Turlock, according to Turlock Police and the Stanislaus County Coroner’s Office.

The cause of the crash is under investigation.

Pizarro, who graduated from Orestimba High School in Newman last spring, was an aviation machinist mate in the U.S. Navy, according to his Facebook page.

He joined the Navy in August and was stationed at Naval Air Station Lemoore, according to an air station spokesman.

The air station, about 20 miles south of Fresno, Calif., is home to four aircraft carrier air wings.

A GoFundMe page set up to help Pizarro’s family pay for his funeral had raised just over $12,150 as of Tuesday afternoon.

olson.wyatt@stripes.com Twitter: @WyattWOlson

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Wyatt Olson is based in the Honolulu bureau, where he has reported on military and security issues in the Indo-Pacific since 2014. He was Stars and Stripes’ roving Pacific reporter from 2011-2013 while based in Tokyo. He was a freelance writer and journalism teacher in China from 2006-2009.

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