Victim's mother, police disagree on who's to blame for death

The mother says her daughter died from a fall; police say she was struck by a driver they arrested.

By CHAO XIONG, Star Tribune

Last update: August 18, 2008 - 4:26 PM

A young Twin Cities woman died early Saturday in a murky incident marked by contradictions and questions.

Shakopee police said the 23-year-old woman, identified by her family as Wastewin Gonzalez, died after she was apparently struck by a car about 5 a.m. in the 5000 block of Tinta Lane in Shakopee. The driver fled the scene and was arrested about 10:20 a.m. at St. Francis Regional Medical Center in Shakopee, where Gonzalez had been transported and later died.

Gonzalez's mother, Juanita Espinosa of Minneapolis, provided a different account. According to Espinosa, Gonzalez was at a house party with the driver, whom she'd been dating since June, when gunshots rang out. The driver made Gonzalez enter the home, thinking he was the target of the gunshots and could distract the shooters by driving away. Gonzalez got out of the house, ran to the car, fell and suffered a fatal brain injury, her mother said.

Espinosa said the coroner told her that there were no signs of impact with a car. "I don't blame him one bit," she said of the driver. "He didn't do anything to hurt my daughter."

The driver, a 26-year-old man from Redwood Falls, is in the Scott County jail on suspicion of criminal vehicular operation and fourth-degree DWI, police said.

Police Sgt. Lynn Lipinski called Espinosa's information about the nature of her daughter's injury unsubstantiated. "We do not have that information," Lipinski said.

Espinosa said her daughter has a titanium plate in her neck from a previous car accident that made her especially vulnerable.

Lipinski also said it's unclear if shots were fired. "People at the scene were uncooperative with us," she said.

Espinosa described her daughter as an activist in the American Indian community. She had taken a year off from the urban teachers' program at Minneapolis Community and Technical College to have her daughter, Juanita Rosario Vargas, now 1, and had planned to return to school next week and to graduate this December, Espinosa said.

"She was an absolutely incredible, alive human being," Espinosa said. "She was really happy. She was in a relationship where she finally felt loved."

Chao Xiong • 612-673-4391

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