FARGO — Shanyell Headswift was charged with killing a former Alexandria man in a drunken driving crash last week in south Fargo, but authorities now say someone else is to blame.
That someone else is 28-year-old David James Torgerson, according to Cass County prosecutors who charged him Thursday, Sept. 17, with manslaughter and duty in accident involving death, both felonies.
A warrant has been issued for Torgerson's arrest in connection to the death of the pedestrian, 39-year-old Peter McKenney. McKenney, originally from Wheaton, Minn., had lived in Alexandria before eventually moving to Fargo, according to his family.
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Fargo police said McKenney may have been walking home from the grocery store when he was struck.
Prosecutors initially charged Headswift, 32, with a Class A felony count of criminal vehicular homicide and a misdemeanor count of hindering law enforcement. Those charges accused her of hitting McKenney around 1 a.m. Sept. 11 near 10th Avenue and 42nd Street South in Fargo while intoxicated.
Officers said they found Headswift behind the wheel of the vehicle when they responded to the crash.
The vehicular homicide charge against Headswift was dismissed Tuesday after a witness told police he saw a man wearing a white top exit the driver side of the vehicle after hearing the crash, according to court documents. That man ran from the scene, the witness told police.
Surveillance video also showed a figure with a white top exiting the vehicle, court documents said.
Headswift told police she had been drinking the night of the crash, according to court documents. She told police that Torgerson was driving the vehicle when she passed out in the passenger seat before the crash, court documents said.
She reported that she never saw the pedestrian and thought they hit a pole or something else, court documents said.
When she woke up after the crash, she saw Torgerson running away, she told police. She initially didn't remember moving to the driver side of the vehicle after the crash, according to court documents.
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Headswift told police she and Torgerson were "friends with benefits," according to court documents. She said she tried to “take the DUI” for Torgerson because she “cared about him, but was not willing to take the blame for the death the crash caused,” according to court documents.
Headswift still faces the hindering charge, but it has been elevated to a Class C felony.
Torgerson, a Fargo resident, told police he was drinking the night of the crash. He claimed Headswift was driving and that he left on foot after the crash, court documents stated.
Torgerson was not booked into Cass County Jail as of Friday. Court records did not list an attorney for him.
