Santa Rosa police identify crash victim

The man died over the weekend when he was thrown from a minivan driven by his girlfriend.|
GUY KOVNER AND KEVIN MCCALLUM
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

Santa Rosa police on Tuesday identified the man killed Saturday when he was thrown out of a minivan as Alan Scott Tree of Santa Rosa.

Tree, 77, was riding in a 1998 white Dodge Caravan driven by his girlfriend, Darlene Ferris, 71, when she accelerated backwards in a circle in the former Kmart parking lot on Industrial Drive. Tree was thrown from the vehicle, who was then ran over.

The van also struck a concrete curb and a tree in the parking lot, police said.

Ferris, who is homeless, was jailed on suspicion of DUI with injury and gross vehicular manslaughter, both felonies.

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