Update:'Floribama's' Nilsa Prowant remembers her 'best friend' Jorge Hernandez of La Quinta who died in 2019

After heavy winds and rainfall from Hurricane Michael pounded the Florida Gulf Coast for several days in October, Staff Sgt. Jorge Alejandro Perez Hernandez and his team of special operations air traffic controllers were deployed to set up an air strip for planes to bring in aid from outside of Tyndall Air Force Base and the surrounding area.

Hernandez and a few members of his team then opted to stay in Panama City and went house-to-house asking residents what help they needed. Michael had been the third-most intense Atlantic hurricane to make landfall in the United States, and the town was in shambles. Hernandez and others would find out what locals needed for survival, then go get the supplies from an hour away and bring the items back to them.

"He would go in the middle of the night, house-to-house, to see what they needed," said close friend Christian Ramirez. "Then, he'd go out and get it for them. That's who he was."

Hernandez, a 2010 La Quinta High School graduate, was killed on New Year's Day when he was run over by a tour van in downtown Nashville, Tenn. He was 26.

Details surrounding his death, those close to him say, are not consistent with the man who would always greet friends by telling them "I missed you" and "I love you."

Hernandez was home in the Coachella Valley the week of Christmas, then traveled to visit friends in Colorado during the last weekend of the year. He then traveled to Nashville, where he spent New Year's Eve and the start of 2019.

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After 11 p.m. on Tuesday night, according to police, Hernandez tried to board a Dodge Sprinter with a tour group in a pay lot, but was told by the driver that he didn’t belong with the group and would not grant him entry.

Police told The Tennessean newspaper in Nashville that Hernandez then asked the driver of the van if he wanted to fight, and a police report states that the driver closed the van’s sliding door and drove out of the parking lot. Hernandez hopped onto the vehicle’s running board and tried opening the door as the van pulled away.

Hernandez apparently fell from the running board and was run over by one of the van’s rear tires, the initial investigation revealed. The driver, who told police that he was unaware that Hernandez had been run over, continued out of the parking lot with passengers until located by police.

The driver, 55-year-old Gregory Grden, did not show signs of impairment and is cooperating with the investigation, police said.

The local medical examiner is conducting toxicology tests to determine whether drugs or alcohol played a role in the incident.

"He just overcame so much and it's all undone completely by being crushed to death," said close friend Zach Merrill, a former wrestler at Palm Desert High. "He had so much going for him."

Friends recall how Hernandez had a troubled upbringing and was at one point homeless, sleeping in La Quinta Park, across from the high school. It was wrestling coach Tom Jenkins and assistant coach Gabe Abril who took Hernandez and his brother in and found a stable living situation.

"All he had to his name was borrowed pants and a shirt," said Ramirez, also a La Quinta High grad.

Yet his circumstances didn't prevent Hernandez from having a positive, upbeat personality, friends say, and he would give to anyone in need, whenever they needed it.

"Jorge was a very loving person," Ramirez said. "If all he had to his name was a dollar, he'd give you a dollar and his pants.

"He was definitely really friendly and he impacted a lot of lives."

Hernandez was also a gifted athlete. He played football as a freshman and a sophomore before quitting to focus on wrestling. He then helped the Blackhawks win a pair of CIF championships, and also won an individual CIF title and was a State qualifier in the 160-pound division.

Those who knew him well said that he was all-business on the mat, but a genuinely nice guy off of it. They also mentioned Hernandez's outgoing personality, how he was the life of any party, went out of his way to include everyone and how he was a ferociously hard worker who made more of his life than others who faced similar challenges.

Former Shadow Hills High wrestling coach Nick Meade, who was an assistant at La Quinta in 2010, said that Hernandez had a "superstar" personality.

"You knew when Jorge was in the room," Meade said. "He had the biggest smile in the room and had a million acquaintances because of how he treated people. He had an electric, magnetic personality.”

Meade said he is among the many who are devastated from the news of Hernandez's death.

“Just a real hit to our community," he said. "He’s a big deal to me; a big deal to a lot of people.

"He had a lot more to do, but my motto is it doesn't matter how long you have, it's what you do with that time, and he did a hell of a lot."

After graduation, Hernandez attended College of the Desert and was a wrestling coach at La Quinta and Shadow Hills High before enlisting in the Air Force, in early 2012, and entering a two-year combat control training program. He finished the program and become a Special Tactics combat controller with the 23rd Special Tactics Squadron.

Major Steven Cooper, commander of the 23rd STS, said that Hernandez was a gregarious individual who was always "laughing, smiling and trying to cheer people up around the squadron." Cooper added that everyone seemed to know Hernandez because of his spirit and liveliness.

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Hernandez was stationed at Hurlburt Air Force Base in the panhandle town of Mary Esther, Fla., and his work in the military took him on at least one tour of Afghanistan, friends say. He was a qualified military static-line jumper, free fall jumper and an Air Force qualified combat scuba diver, according to an Air Force news release.

"If he was to die this young, I would've expected him to be killed in combat," Merrill said. "Yeah, I would've been devastated, but at the same time I would've been a lot more understanding, a lot more thankful for his service. But this, for him to get killed in a freak accident?

"To me, it's just all unreal. I wish I could scream myself away of this nightmare, but nope, it doesn't work that way."

Hernandez also coached wrestling at Fort Walton Beach High School, and because of his dedication to his local community he was awarded the Military Outstanding Volunteer Services Medal.

Ramirez says that like so many others who knew Hernandez well, he too is still in shock over the news of his death. But he's inspired by Hernandez and is grateful for the influence he had during his short lifetime.

"If you were to ask anybody, we feel that his life story should be shared with the world," he said. "Just how powerful it is. It shows that if you really want something, coming from nothing, you can achieve it.

"It helps restore faith in humanity, that there's still good people out there."

Andrew John writes for The Desert Sun and the USA TODAY Network. If you have anything to add to this story, please email him at andrew.john@desertsun.com