A woman who was killed the day after Christmas when she was struck by an unmarked emergency vehicle in Hesperia was a wife and mother to eight children, according to a sibling’s fundraising page.
Monica Duboise was crossing a street near Main Street and Fifth Avenue when San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department deputies crashed into her Saturday around 5:40 p.m., according to a Hesperia Police Department news release.
The vehicle’s driver, Deputy Jeromy Snyder, was responding to reports of a burglary in progress when the collision occurred. His partner, Probation Officer Monique Garcia, was also in the vehicle at the time, the Sheriff’s Department stated in a news release.
The 35-year-old victim was identified as Monica McMurtry-Duboise in a GoFundMe page that remembered her as a loving and giving person.
“She wasn’t just my big little sis, she was my best friend. She was a ray of light in the darkest of situations,” stated the page, which was created Monday.
The victim leaves behind a husband and eight children, according to the page, which had raised about $1,100 toward funeral and family expenses as of midday Tuesday.
Duboise was initially described by the Sheriff’s Department as a transient, but on Tuesday, Sgt. Marc Bracco said it was no longer clear if she was a transient or resident of the area.
She was from Hesperia, Bracco added.
Multiple people who contacted KTLA in response to a story about Monica Duboise’s death said they knew the victim and that she was not a transient.
The Sheriff’s Department also initially said speed was not a factor in the crash that killed Duboise, but Bracco again said this was no longer known.
Investigators planned to continue “reconstruction work” of the crash and will later determine if speed was involved, he said.
At the time of the crash, the unmarked vehicle did not have emergency lights or sirens on, Bracco said.
The vehicle had the capability of having these turned on, but Bracco said that is not common practice for non-injury related calls.
