A North Charleston family is pushing back against the official police narrative after officers arrested a 27-year-old woman for the hit-and-run death of a 2-year-old girl — and the department refuses to explain how it concluded her car was the one that killed the child.
When law enforcement won't detail its reasoning and the press simply parrots the charging documents, accountability becomes a one-way street running straight through the accused.
Anayely Lovato Guerrero was arrested Sept. 10 and charged with hit and run with death and reckless vehicular homicide after Haisha Dominguez Marin, a toddler from Venezuela, was struck by a car the night of Sept. 9 on Rivers Avenue, according to the Charleston Post and Courier. At a preliminary hearing, an officer told Magistrate William Nixon that surveillance footage captured a vehicle — later identified as Guerrero's — driving 65 mph in a 45 mph zone. The officer said a "loud thud" was heard on the recording off-screen, and that Guerrero exited her vehicle to inspect for damage before driving off when she found none.
Guerrero's brother, Frencio Lovato Guerrero, attended the hearing and tells a different story. He says his sister unknowingly drove over the girl's remains after another car had already fatally struck the child. It was dark, police hadn't arrived, and she had no way of knowing what she hit. He also directly contradicts the officer's account: his sister never left her vehicle.
The arrest report itself supports the brother's version on at least one point. When officers first questioned Guerrero at her home Sept. 10, she told them "she heard a bang but did not notice anything, so she continued driving." That's the statement of someone who didn't realize she'd hit a person — not someone who stopped, got out, and checked for damage.
Guerrero was driving a light gray 2020 Toyota Tacoma. Her brother says she was singled out because the truck's color made it more visible on surveillance, while other vehicles that passed the girl's remains that night escaped scrutiny.
North Charleston police spokesperson Anthony King said investigators established probable cause but refused to explain how they determined Guerrero's car delivered the fatal strike rather than simply passing over the child's remains afterward. "As to the specifics of the investigation, those will come out in court at trial," King wrote.
The toddler's mother, 21-year-old Glaimar Alejandra Ramirez-Dominguez, was also arrested Sept. 10, charged with unlawful conduct toward a child, and remains in custody on an ICE hold. This was the second time in two weeks the child had wandered alone onto the roadway next to the Bradley Square apartment complex. The first time, good samaritans rescued her, according to a police incident report.
Guerrero has no criminal history. Her attorney noted only a speeding ticket from more than two years ago.
A dead child demands accountability. But accountability only means something if it lands on the right person. When police seal their reasoning behind "it'll come out at trial," and the family offers a plausible alternative, the public is asked to take an institution's word on faith. That's not how this is supposed to work.
