Mother wants answers in fatal crash

Andrea Castillo dies after crash with undercover Hialeah Police officer

CORAL GABLES, Fla. – The mother of a 21-year-old woman who died from her injuries suffered in a crash with an undercover Hialeah Police officer earlier this month wants to know why her daughter wasn't transported by air rescue like the police officer was.

"My family and I are completely devastated about what has happened to my daughter. She had just turned 21 the day before the accident," said Miami-Dade School Board member Susie Castillo. "She had her whole life ahead of her. She was just starting everything."

Castillo's daughter Andrea died two days after a collision with a undercover officer at E. 9th Court and 49th Street on October 19.

According to Hialeah Police, Marco Barrios, Andrea's boyfriend, ran a stop sign into the path of the unmarked police car. The SUV the pair was riding in flipped several times after it was hit. Police said Barrios and Castillo weren't wearing seatbelts.

Hazel Barrios said based on his bruises, her brother Marco, who remains in critical condition at Jackson Memorial Hospital, was wearing a seatbelt at the time of the crash. She also said her brother stopped at the intersection.

"Everybody wants justice, right? We want to know what's going on. We want to know, just like anyone else, we want answers," said Hazel Barrios.

"It really hurts. I'm very angry about the way we have been treated. I was never contacted by the (Hialeah) Police Department the night of the accident," said Castillo. "I found out because friends of hers told me and that's how we got to the hospital."

Castillo wants an independent investigation into the crash. Castillo said her daughter was unconscious after the crash when she and Barrios were taken by ambulance to the hospital.

Raul Somarriba, the officer involved in the crash, suffered leg, arm, and head injuries. He was transported by Air Rescue.

"You don't treat people that way. It's like our family doesn't exist. We're not important," said Castillo. "It seems like the only thing that was important was maybe the cop because he was the only one that was airlifted. He's the only one they paid any attention to."

"Air rescue transported the police officer because he met the highest degree of severity in injuries at the time. They were triaged," Hialeah Fire Rescue Capt. Cesar Espinosa said last week.

"I'm very angry. I'm very hurt and I think, I believe, I don't know because I don't have the facts of anything yet, but the fact that you have a person unconscious there, it seems logical that if you're taking the chopper and you're taking one person in that chopper, there's absolutely no reason why she shouldn't have been on that chopper," said Castillo. "My daughter's life shouldn't be -- what happened to her shouldn't be unanswered. It needs to be, I need to know why it happened to her."

Both families want the Miami-Dade Police Department to take over the investigation and have contacted the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. The families are considering filing lawsuits against the City of Hialeah.