Police charged a 49-year-old D.C. woman with involvuntary manslaughter and driving while intoxicated in the death of a woman who was walking to the store after church.
Emmajean Gainey was walking with her boyfriend on the sidewalk along South Capitol Street in Southwest D.C. at about 2:45 Sunday when she was hit and killed by a car.
Police arrested the driver, Maria Nicole Werts of Southwest D.C., at the scene.
Police say Werts was turning right at a red light on First Street when she almost hit another car travelling on South Capitol Street. Werts then lost control of her car, drove over the curb and onto the sidewalk, striking Gainey and pinning her to a tree, police said.
Gainey's fiance told News4's Darcy Spencer that he is shocked by her death.
"I don't know what I'm going to do know," said Floyd Little, Sr. "That was my rock. That's the woman I love, looked forward to marrying. This is not right."
Little was walking with the victim when the accident happened.
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As the car sped toward them, he said, "I ran one way, I ran in the street, and she ran toward the woods."
The walk was part of the woman's regular Sunday routine, her son told Spencer. She would go to church each Sunday, and then collect her shopping bags and walk to the store.
"A lot of people just saw her coming from church," her son said. "You just leave from church, go in the house and get your shopping bags and you take a walk to go get groceries and you lose your life..."
The scene drew a crowd of relatives, neighbors and onlookers.
"This lady is by far one of the biggest angels in the world," a woman told Spencer on the scene. "She's an angel, you can't put it any other way... and she's gone now."
