A driver told police she was looking down at a fast food bag when she hit a curb in St. Paul, which ended in a fiery crash that killed her 26-year-old passenger, according to a criminal complaint filed Wednesday.

Ralohn L. Hare, 35, is charged with two counts of criminal vehicular homicide: one alleging she drove negligently while under the influence of alcohol and the other alleging she drove “in a grossly negligent manner.”

Qiara “Keke” Gleason Courtesy of the family)

The woman who died, Qiara “Keke” Gleason, was the mother of four young children.

Gleason was on her way home. She and Hare had recently started hanging out, according to Gleason’s mother.

Officers responded at 3:28 a.m. Nov. 2 to Arlington and Prosperity avenues on a single-vehicle crash with a vehicle on fire and a woman trapped inside. A Dodge Grand Caravan was off the road, in the grass and against two trees.

“It appears that the Caravan had been heading south on Hazelwood Street, blown through the stop sign, jumped the curb, gone off road, and crashed into a tree,” the complaint said. “… Fire rapidly spread from the front hood to the Caravan’s interior.”

Officers found Hare lying in the grass on the driver’s side and dragged her away from the minivan.

“When asked what happened Hare said she was distracted while driving by talking to (Gleason) and reaching into the White Castle bag to grab a chicken ring,” according to the complaint.

Gleason was unconscious. Officers tried using fire extinguishers to suppress the fire, and attempted to open the front and rear passenger doors to remove Gleason, but the door frames were bent and wouldn’t open. They also tried pulling her from the passenger window.

St. Paul firefighters responded and extinguished the fire. Fire department medics pronounced Gleason dead at the scene. An autopsy found her immediate cause of death was multiple traumatic injuries from the crash.

Gleason’s mother, Nichole Castile, said Thursday she wants justice for her daughter and she was glad to see charges were filed. Gleason’s children — 8-month-old twins, a 1-year-old and a 4-year-old — have been in Castile’s care since her daughter’s death.

Witness says driver drank while driving

Medics took Hare to the hospital. She said she and Gleason got food from the White Castle on White Bear Avenue about a mile away.

Hare said she and Gleason “had a friendly argument over whose food was whose as they drove 30-35 mph down the road,” according to the complaint. After she struck the curb while looking down at the bag, she hit the brake and turned the steering wheel to the right, ending up on the grass.

Ralohn L. Hare in a 2017 booking photo. (Courtesy of the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office)

She said she tried to get Gleason out of the vehicle, but the doors were stuck shut. She said she and Gleason were the only people in the minivan.

Police were later told that a man was also in the vehicle.

A person who heard a loud boom and saw the crashed Caravan reported that a man by the vehicle initially told her that police were not needed. The witness saw Hare walking around before she sat down in the location where police found her.

The witness saw the vehicle on fire and called 911. The man who’d initially said not to call police then “frantically” tried to open all the doors to remove Gleason, the witness reported.

Investigators discovered that the man spoke to officers at the crash site, but he gave a false name. Police later talked to him and he said he’d done so because he had a warrant.

The man said Hare and Gleason picked him up in Columbia Heights. Hare was driving 90 mph on the highway at times, “and he told Hare to slow down at one point,” according to the complaint. He also told investigators that Hare drank from a Crown Royal whisky bottle while driving.

Police obtained a warrant to draw Hare’s blood at the hospital. Her blood alcohol concentration was 0.025 two hours after the crash. The Minnesota Bureau Criminal of Apprehension used a forensic technique to estimate Hare’s blood alcohol concentration at the time of the crash and estimated it was 0.063 to 0.120, the complaint said. The legal limit to drive in Minnesota is 0.08.

Hare was charged by summons and is due to make her first court appearance next month. She couldn’t be reached for comment Thursday.

Gleason’s family had already experienced tragedy before she died. Gleason’s first cousin was Philando Castile, 32, who a St. Anthony police officer fatally shot during a traffic stop in Falcon Heights in 2016.

Gleason’s older sister, Rene Gleason, died at 31 in 2017. She was an innocent bystander when she was wounded in a shooting in Minneapolis three years earlier, was prescribed painkillers, and became dependent on them.

Keke Gleason fundraiser

Relatives of Qiara “Keke” Gleason started a GoFundMe (gofund.me/ec4673213), which says donations will “help support the care and daily needs of her four children as they adjust to life without their mom.” Funds will go to Nichole Castile, Gleason’s mother, as she raises her grandchildren.

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