Yaceny Berenice Rodriguez-Gonzalez and Arianna Aleja Colon.
The suspect in a fatal early morning hit-and-run in Florida texted and called friends and family after the accident, telling them that she was behind the wheel and believed she had hit someone, according to police records.
Arianna Aleja Colon, 22, is facing charges of vehicular homicide and leaving the scene of an accident in the death of 10-year-old Yaceny Berenice Rodriguez-Gonzalez in late September.
Colon had been a person of interest since shortly after the accident, and was arrested on Friday.
Police records show that Colon had gone to authorities on the day of the accident, which occurred at around 6:30 a.m. on Sept. 23 as Rodriguez-Gonzalez was crossing the street to board a school bus. Colon went to the St. Lucie County Jail with her mother that afternoon. Colon acknowledged that she was the driver of the car, a white sedan.
Earlier that day, the affidavit said, Colon had called both her mother and her sister, telling them what had happened. Both described Colon as being “hysterical” on the phone, and both said they convinced Colon to turn herself in to authorities.
“Mom you’re not going to love me anymore or want to see me anymore,” Colon told her mother, Andrea, when she called her, according to the affidavit. “I think I hit someone this morning.”
Colon had also texted friends about the incident.
Arianna Aleja Colon, St. Lucie Jail
“I hit a girl this morning and left the scene. And she ended up passin away (crying emoji),” Colon texted a friend the afternoon of the accident, as she was on her way to jail, according to the report. “It was an accident. I didn’t mean to I swear … J[u]st wanted you not to hate me when u see me on the news.”
“Plz know I didn’t mean to and it was and [sic] accident and I wanna kill myself over it (heart emoji, crying emoji),” the report said.
Video showed that on the day of the accident, Rodriguez-Gonzalez was crossing the street to get on a waiting school bus, according to the affidavit. The affidavit seems to suggest that a second child had crossed the road just ahead of Rodriguez-Gonzalez, and that the Rodriguez-Gonzalez had started to cross, then took a step back.
The bus had its red flashing lights on and the stop bar out, the arrest warrant affidavit said.
Despite these safety measures, however, the car that hit Rodriguez-Gonzalez “showed no signs of slowing,” according to the document.
“The sedan fled the scene and no brake lights were observed on camera to indicate the vehicle slowing down,” the report also said, adding that records show that Colon “sped up to 21 mph over the posted speed limit of 35 mph” shortly after the crash.
Also according to the affidavit, an acquaintance of Colon’s had videos on his phone that showed “several videos of Arianna driving and making videos on various days and nights while operating a motor vehicle.”
The affidavit also suggests that Colon may have been at a party or small gathering in the early morning hours of Sept. 23, prior to the accident.
According to St. Lucie sheriff’s office records, Colon is being held on $210,000 bond. Court records did not indicate a future hearing date.
[Image of victim via the Fort Pierce, Fla. Police Dept. Image of the defendant via screengrab from WPEC-TV/courtroom feed]
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