Girl Struck by Van, Dragged to Death Near Home

As her twin sister and neighbors watched, a Buena Park teen-ager was run over by a van and dragged 1,000 feet to her death outside her home Monday night, police said.

Sharon Renee Swearengin, 16, a student at Western High School, Anaheim, was dead at the scene, according to Terry Branum, of the Buena Park police. Branum said that, unknown to the driver, she had been caught in the front wheel well of the van and was dragged as he drove away.

“The paramedics said it was one of the worst calls they ever had to go out on . . . how the whole thing happened was strange,” he said.

The driver, David Michael Garcia, 23, a carpet layer from Anaheim, was arrested on suspicion of vehicular manslaughter and booked into Orange County Jail. He was later released pending further investigation, Branum said.

Branum said the accident happened about 10:20 p.m. in the 7200 block of Monroe Street, as Sharon was trying to break up a fight between Garcia and two neighbors.

Sharon and her twin sister, Karen, had gone out earlier Monday night with two boys who live across the street. After the four returned home, Garcia and a 16-year-old boy pulled up in the van outside the Swearengin house and the girls came outside, Branum said.

The boys from across the street then came over and got into an argument with Garcia and his passenger. Branum said Garcia, still in the van, stepped on the gas to escape because he was being beaten up by the boys.

He apparently did not see Sharon standing in front of the left front wheel, and the girl was struck. The others yelled at him to stop, but Garcia drove to the end of the block, turned and finally returned to the Swearengin house, a distance of about 1,000 feet, before he learned what had happened, Branum said.