Facebook Twitter Email
FRIDAY, JANUARY 18, 2002

A Bureau of Indian Affairs officer in New Mexico will face a $46 traffic citation over an incident in which his police vehicle dragged a deaf student to death.

Santa Fe District Attorney Henry Valdez said there was not enough evidence to charge Marcelino Toersbijns with vehicular homicide for the November death of Alicia Waseta. Waseta, 21 and just 4 foot 9 inches, had apparently been crossing the street near the Santa Fe Indian School (SFIS) when she was somehow struck by Toersbijns' sports utility vehicle and dragged 500 feet.

Toersbijns didn't notice she was under the car until he was flagged down by another driver. He was been placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of the local investigation

Waseta was a recent graduate of the New Mexico School for the Deaf, which is located next to the SFIS campus and the Indian Health Service (IHS) hospital on Cerrillos Road, where the accident occurred.

Get the Story:
Driver To Face Traffic Citation in Pedestrian's Death (The Albuquerque Journal 1/18)

Related Stories:
N.M. woman killed in BIA accident (9/20)