Woman Remembered After Being Hit And Killed By Own SUV

A trip to Walgreens turned deadly for an 80-year-old woman after what police are calling a “freak accident.”

Reyes Prieto was only a few blocks away from her far east El Paso home, making a routine trip to the store, when she was run over and killed by her own SUV in the parking lot at the intersection of Zaragoza and Vista Del Sol, police said.

“She was my life, everything I did was thinking of her,” Jaime Huerta, Reyes’ husband, said. “I feel like I lost something in me, apart of me is gone.”

Jaime said Reyes was the love of his life. As their backyard garden bloomed, so did their marriage of 35 years – and Jaime said Reyes was his most vibrant rose of all.

“It meant her whole life,” Jaime said. “She would spend endless hours here everyday.”

Five years ago for her 75th birthday, Jaime gave Reyes a rose bush that he said still blooms in the garden they designed together.

“The garden was her whole life,” Jaime said. “Now that we don’t have her, it’s going to be hard to keep up with what she started.”

The parking lot at Walgreens is typically crowded, but police said it was Reyes’ own Toyota 4-Runner that ran her over. The SUV was still in gear when it rolled backward. As Reyes tried to get inside, she slipped and fell, police said. The SUV continued over her body, police said, and it was too late.

“It was, whoa… just stunned,” Heberto Prieto, Reyes’ nephew, said. “She just went to the store, you know, you expect her to come back. She was my favorite aunt. She’ll always have our love and she’s up there right now, rejoicing, and dancing with the angels.”

Jaime said he can’t imagine a day without his wife and best friend by his side.

“I’m going to miss her, I’m going to miss her so much,” Jaime said. “She’s irreplaceable.”

Instead of flowers or gifts, the family has requested donations be made in Reyes’ honor to the El Paso Rescue Mission located at 1949 W. Paisano Dr., where she volunteered.

Services will be held Wednesday from 4 to 9 p.m. at Mount Carmel Funeral Home and Thursday at 10 a.m. at St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church.