DWI cases don't always end up in jail, on probation or in prison, but sometimes in spots like on Buffalo Gap Road and South Clack, where two lives were tragically taken by one man's mistake.It's a moment that changed Brooklyn's life but she doesn't fully understand how it will affect her.
Twenty-two month old Brooklyn misses her mom, she kisses her pictures and points at heaven when asked where mommy Shelle is.
Shelle was 20 year-old Rachelle Rueda, killed by a drunk driver, her boyfriend Andrew Lugo JR.
"He had two lives in his hands, when he got behind that wheel. He had my daughter's life and her unborn baby," said Rachelle's mom, Rose Rueda.
Andrew was intoxicated when he slammed into a Texas Alcohol Beverage Commissioner's car at the red light on buffalo gap road and clack. Rachelle and her unborn child were instantly killed.
"I'm still angry at all because you know I lost my daughter that night and my granddaughter lost her mother, because of him," said Rueda.
So often drunk drivers have an "it can't happen to me" mentality and Rueda has seen and heard it first hand.
"There are so many people out there that still think, you know think it's cute because 'oh i was so drunk the other night, you know gosh I don't even know how I made it home and thinking it's something cute, that it's OK and it's not OK. There are so many lives taken by drunk drivers."
Rachelle's brother Ramiro Rueda says it's hard missing her and knowing you can't turn back time.
"The only way to put it, is a piece of me is gone and that like in an instant and kind of knowing there's no way to reverse that, you know, what happened."
For rose it's even harder.
"It's not easy losing a child. I mean you can lose a cousin, you can lose a grandmother, you can lose someone that you aren't close to, you know every day, but me and my children were really, really close."
Putting her own heartache aside, Rueda says the most tragic part of this story is little Brooklyn, who will never have her mother back.
"Seeing that my daughter's life was taken and seeing my granddaughter with out her mother, it's the hardest thing because I have to see her everyday and know she doesn't have her mother. You know, that's the hardest thing for me, how am I going to tell her you know, 'hey, your father is the one that killed your mother' and I see her everyday, she needed her mother."
To see more about this story and photos, read my blog: Confessions Of A Rookie Reporter
For Part I of the Scared Straight DWI series: Scared Straight: Drunk Driving
