A Camp Pendleton Marine was arrested on suspicion of DUI and vehicular manslaughter after a car crash that killed a 12-year-old boy in Oceanside on the Fourth of July, the U.S. Marine Corps confirmed Thursday.
The two-car crash on Surfrider Way and North Myers Street that killed Santiago Gaspar, 12, involved, Edward Minot Jr., 20, a Marine with the 1st Maintenance Battalion, said Cpt. Charles Palmer with Camp Pendleton.
"At this time, we can confirm that he was the driver of one vehicle involved in the accident," Palmer said in a statement.
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The crash was reported at around 11 p.m. after an Oceanside Police (OPD) patrol vehicle attempted to pull over Minot who was driving a white Volkswagen GTI with no lights on near Mission Avenue and Myers Street, OPD said. Minot failed to yield and immediately sped north on Myers Street at a high rate of speed. Seconds later, the Minot's car broadsided a blue Nissan Altima that was traveling east on Surfrider Way.
Police arrived to find Gaspar, who was a passenger in the Altima, dead at the scene.
The Altima’s driver, 27, and another young passenger, Gaspar's younger brother who is 6, suffered injuries that were not life-threatening, Oceanside police said. The two passengers of the Volkswagen suffered non-life-threatening injuries. All four were taken to a local hospital.
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The child's mother was driving ahead of them in a different car but did not witness the crash, according to the boy's aunt.
According to a neighbor, the crash sounded like a bomb, but since it was the Fourth of July, she suspected it was fireworks.
"I texted my daughter asking if the dogs were okay and I didn’t know she was upstairs and she came to my bedroom door and said, 'No, something terrible has happened in the alley,'" Nancy Bellante said. "It was terrible. There was a little boy that was standing there crying and I thought that his mother had been injured but it wasn't, it was his brother."
The investigation is ongoing but police suspect that both alcohol and speed were a factor in the crash, OPD said. Minot of Mill Spring, North Carolina, was placed under arrest at the hospital for suspicion of DUI and gross vehicular manslaughter.
"I don't care if the kid was only 20 years old, it's ridiculous," Bellante said. "He killed a child, he ruined a family’s life. That poor little boy is going to be traumatized for the rest of his life and it's just carelessness."
"1st Marine Logistics Group commits itself to high standards for personal conduct, both on and off duty, and will continue to cooperate with the Oceanside Police Department while the incident is being investigated," Palmer continued in his statement.
Anyone with information regarding this collision is asked to call Oceanside Police Department Traffic Collision Investigator David Paul at (760) 435-4431.
