Anousone "Ped" Phanthavong was a dear friend and valued coworker of mine. We opened our restaurant, True Thai, in 2002, and Ped was the only person still working for us who had been on our original staff.
State troopers woke me one night last month at 3:45 a.m. because I was the registered owner of Ped's car. My partner slept through the troopers knocking on our door but awoke upon hearing my cries of anguish at learning that Ped had been killed.
The next day I saw the place where Ped had pulled his car off the ramp and onto the grass. I saw blood stains from his body being dragged 40 feet by the Mercedes SUV that hit him. He was left for dead only three-quarters of a block from the University of Minnesota Medical Center's emergency room.
More than 300 people jammed the funeral home for Ped's funeral. Everyone wore white, the Buddhist color of mourning.
It took four cars to bring all the floral arrangements -- all white, because that was Ped's favorite color. He always wore white T-shirts. Even on a moonless night, it would have been difficult not to see him on a well-lit freeway exit ramp.
The day after Ped died, the state troopers told us he had been hit by a Mercedes SUV. They told the news media, and shortly after that, an attorney representing the family of former Minnesota Vikings player Joe Senser contacted authorities.
It would be another nine agonizing days before the Senser family said that Amy Senser, Joe's wife, was driving that night.
I was acting as an interpreter when a trooper advised Ped's brother that the family should get a high-powered attorney. The trooper, perhaps, should not have said that, and he didn't say why the family needed an attorney.