Hundreds of people mourn Brooklyn Park teen killed in crash

Martin Espino Martinez’s parents moved here from Mexico nearly two decades ago in hopes of giving their future children a better life.

And the Brooklyn Park family believed their dream had come to fruition — until a motorist with a revoked license struck and killed the 17-year-old the night of Feb. 1.

Hundreds of people gathered Wednesday evening to mourn Espino Martinez during a wake and funeral mass at St. Alphonsus Catholic Church in Brooklyn Center.

A series of Espino Martinez’s friends from Park Center Senior High School, where he was a junior, recalled the teen as happy, supportive and humble.

“Martin never hated anybody — he always treated everybody the same and he was always looking out for his friends and the people he loved,” said Richard Lezama, 16.

He said that the death has hit the local Mexican community hard, noting that Espino Martinez’s friends’ families all have similar stories of their parents moving here for a better life for their children. Lezama says he knows that his friend would not want them to give up.

“He was really happy and always put a smile on people’s face,” said his cousin Daniel Vital, 16.

Martinez’s parents, Benigno Espino Vital and Josefina Martinez Morales, are calling for authorities to file criminal charges against motorist Ontwan Lupree Collins. Court records show that the 47-year-old Brooklyn Center resident has been convicted six times for driving after license revocation and once for drunken driving.

“We want to know why they let him go,” said Espino Vital in an interview at the family’s Brooklyn Center home last weekend. “The fact that he’s got a revoked driver’s license … we don’t understand why he wasn’t detained.”

He added: “We’re going to fight until we get justice.”

Brooklyn Park Police Inspector Matt Rabe said in an email Wednesday that the accident investigation is ongoing. Once that is finished, according to Rabe, the case will be submitted to the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office to review for possible charges.

A search warrant affidavit filed in Hennepin County District Court indicates that Collins told police he was traveling west on Regent Avenue and turning left onto Unity Avenue in Brooklyn Park when his vehicle struck Martinez while the teen was riding east on Regent Avenue on a scooter. Collins stayed at the scene and cooperated with the authorities, who said they saw no signs he was impaired by drugs or alcohol.

Police Inspector Elliot Faust said a review of surveillance video indicates that Collins’ SUV hit the scooter while the teen was in the crosswalk, and authorities found Martinez lying in the intersection unconscious with severe head injuries.

His mother told the Minnesota Star Tribune that she had just finished making tamales, her son’s favorite food, when she got a call about an accident down the street and rushed over. When she learned that her son was hit, she said, police would not let her inside the blocked-off scene. “I fell to my knees and cried,” recalled Martinez Morales.

Espino Martinez’s friend Ricardo Marquez, 16, said that a group of friends had gone out to ride scooters but Marquez and a cousin left to go to a gas station down the block. On their way back, they saw an SUV turn at the last minute and hit Martinez. “It wasn’t a normal turn,” he said.

The victim’s cousin Karina, who declined to have her last name used for privacy reasons, said during the weekend interview that friends and relatives have gathered at Espino Martinez’s home every night to comfort his parents.

“The only thing we want is for him to get justice, because I know as long as that person is walking free, [the parents] are not going to be at peace,” said Karina.

She added that if authorities don’t take action, the same motorist “is going to continue driving with a revoked license. Next time it could be someone else’s daughter, it could be someone else’s son, someone else’s parent, someone else’s grandparent. That’s why we want to prevent another accident like that from happening.”

Espino Martinez was the second of the couple’s three children, and Espino Vital said his son dreamed of being an auto mechanic. Espino Vital had bought him a Traxxas remote control car to work on, and the car sat on display outside the church sanctuary on Wednesday. In addition to having his own goals, “he was always very encouraging of others,” his father said.

“He was like a big brother,” said his cousin, Ruben Vital.