Public Safety · Baton Rouge, LA
LSU Senior and Fiancé Killed by Impaired Driver in Baton Rouge Early Sunday
Baton Rouge Police said Mia Camille Dawson, 20, veered a 2016 Nissan Rogue off the road around 2:40 a.m. Sunday and struck two pedestrians on the right shoulder. Leah Victoria Fonte, 21, an LSU senior studying biological sciences on a pre-dental track, died at the scene; her fiancé Shane David Hirstius, 21, later died at a local hospital. Hirstius served as an operator/firefighter with the Third District Volunteer Fire Department, which remembered him as a dedicated first responder. Dawson was booked into East Baton Rouge Parish Prison on charges including operating while impaired, hit-and-run driving, vehicular homicide and vehicular negligent injuring. The couple had been celebrating a friend's birthday before the crash; circumstances remain under investigation.