Woman speaks out after daughter killed by suspected drunk driver after driving into home
WHITE SETTLEMENT, Texas - A mother in White Settlement is talking about a devastating crash.
Her daughter was killed and her husband critically injured after a suspected drunken driver crashed into their home.
An unimaginable amount of heartache now surrounds this home.
Amy Kirkland has lived here with her husband Kevin and daughter Katey for 14 years. They were all home on Aug. 7.
"I felt and saw one of the walls shake by our entryway," she recalled.
Teen killed, father injured after suspected drunk driver crashes into home in White Settlement
That’s when police say 63-year-old Donald Gruber drunkenly drove his truck through the family’s home.
"A split second later it was like just a boom went off. An explosion went off. All the doors that were in all the bedrooms just exploded out into the hallway," Amy recalled.
Amy began searching for her family.
"I just started screaming and yelling their names, and there was already people out on the street because they heard that, too," she recalled.
Suspected drunk driver who crashed into White Settlement home has 3 previous DWIs
18-year-old Katey was in her bedroom where the truck entered.
Kevin is still hospitalized with a brain injury, skull fractures, complications from a stroke and more.
"I don’t know if he’ll ever talk again or be aware of what’s going on and what the severity of things might be," Amy said. "Right now, he’s still unconscious."
She’s dreading the news she’ll have to break.
Katey was a rising senior at Saginaw High School.
"I felt like she was just starting to become an adult and just starting to be able to go out there in the world. She had just gotten her driver’s license," Amy said.
It’s the same high school Amy teaches at. Kevin is a teacher at nearby Boswell High School. On Friday, a showing of love and togetherness from both schools as they welcomed Amy on the field for a moment of silence. She misses Katey dearly.
"She was nervous about graduating. Nervous about going off into the world but really excited about it," she said.
Amy needs her husband to pull through. But as difficult as it is to move forward, she says it’s a tremendous help to feel support from her community.
"Because things can change in an instant," she said. You always hear about it happening to other people and you really don’t think it’ll happen to you."
Gruber was charged with intoxication manslaughter with vehicle and intoxication assault with vehicle He’s now out on bond. His next court date is scheduled for Sept. 2.
White settlement police tell FOX 4 that Gruber has had three previous DWI arrests.