SANTA FAMILIA, Cayo, Mon. Apr. 12, 2021– On Thursday evening, 11-year-old Keiana Cruz died after a van ran over her just a stone’s throw away from her home in Santa Familia Village, Cayo. Reports state that the 11-year-old Cruz and her brother, 5-year-old Jahir Cruz, were walking back home from their aunt’s home when a white truck, being driven by Joseph Landero, who was allegedly intoxicated, struck the siblings, leaving one dead and the other severely injured.

Assistant Commissioner of Police Joseph Myvett said that police have since arrested Landero, 27, who was charged “with the crimes of manslaughter by negligence, causing death by careless conduct, and failure to provide specimen.”

The cause of the incident remains unknown, but ACP Myvett said, “The vehicle will be inspected to see whether or not he lost control because of some mechanical failure. As the procedure dictates, samples [of blood and urine] were requested from him, which he refused to provide.”

“Apparently the driver lost control of the vehicle,” continued Myvett. “After knocking down both minors he then collided into a light post which was a little distance away, some 200 feet away from the incident,” he further said.

The father of the deceased, in an interview with News5, said, “[Landero] was discussing with his wife and then say that he was kinda drunk…. He started the car and he gone speed and crash straight into them — into my daughter and into my son.” The father claims the van dragged his daughter about forty feet from the initial point of contact.

A police investigation is still ongoing, but Assistant Commissioner Myvett assured the public that “[Jahir Cruz] is now in a stable condition but also received injuries during the accident.”