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Hospice nurse killed in Tampa crash over the weekend: 'She exuded love'
The community is grieving after a nurse was killed in a crash early Sunday morning. FOX 13' Kylie Jones reports.
TAMPA, Fla. - The community is grieving after a nurse was killed in a crash early Sunday morning.
Friends said Ann Marie Rutkowski, 59, was driving to work at Life Path Hospice Sunday morning, when she was hit and killed in Tampa.
"It was supposed to be the perfect Sunday at work for her, and it obviously, she didn't get to have that last day," said Alexis Savini, Rutkowski’s longtime friend and coworker.
Pictured: Ann Marie Rutkowski.
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The Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office said Jenri Fuentes Rodriguez, 39, was arrested and charged with vehicular homicide after causing multiple crashes.
Deputies said Rodriguez was leaving a club and hit a car, then drove off. They said Rodriguez then pulled into a parking lot, hit another car and drove off again.
Investigators said Rodriguez then ran a red light and crashed into a third car at Waters Avenue and Himes Avenue. They said Rutkowski was in that car and was killed in the crash.
Pictured: Jenri Rodriguez.
"Losing Ann Marie was losing a little bit of love in this world," Savini said.
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When Rutkowski didn’t show up at work Sunday morning, Savini said she went to her home to check on her.
"I was at her apartment to do a welfare check," Savini said. "She hadn't come to work. She is the most punctual person. She's the most careful person."
Savini said she was met by deputies at Rutkowski’s apartment, and they delivered the news to her about the deadly crash.
"It took away something that was so beautiful in this community," she said. "She touched thousands of lives."
Savini said Rutkowski worked as a hospice nurse for more than a decade.
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"She had a love for her patients," she said. "There would be days, she'd just come up and just unload and say, ‘This is what's happening, and I'm so sad, and I have to tell you so that I can go and be happy with the patient.’"
Savini said Rutkowski was more like family to her than a friend.
Pictured: Ann Marie Rutkowski.
"I knew she was going to hug me, and I'm longing for it, and I'm missing it," Savini said.
She wants Rutkowski to be remembered for her energy and her love for others.
"I just want them to remember the compassionate care that she had for not only her patients, but her friends," she said. "She exuded love."
Rodriguez is being held in jail in Hillsborough County, and he’s expected to have a pre-trial detention hearing on Wednesday.
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