Community Rallies Around Bridgeport Family After Tragic N.Y. Crash Kills Three

BRIDGEPORT, CT — The community is rallying around a Bridgeport family following a tragic accident in upstate New York that claimed the lives of a mother, her daughter and her niece earlier this week.

Aspiring actress Jesenia Valentin, 29, of Bridgeport, was killed, along with her 9-year-old daughter Angelina and 12-year-old niece Asyria Ferrer (a student at Flood Middle School in Stratford), after her 2006 Volkswagen Passat was struck from behind by a tractor-trailer on I-84 early Wednesday morning.

Two dogs also died in the crash.

New York State Police investigators said that Valentin ran out of gas while driving in the right lane of the highway at about 4 a.m., turned on her emergency flashers and called 911, according to the Daily Freeman.

The Daily Freeman reports that about 3 minutes into the call, the 911 operator heard the crash of the car being struck from behind and a dog’s yelp before the phone went dead.

The driver of the tractor-trailer, Gino Ruggiero, 52, of Sugar Loaf, Pa., told police that he saw the car with its flashers on ahead of him and thought it was moving, according to the Daily Freeman.

Friends recently launched GoFundMe accounts to help with funeral and burial expenses and to assist the family.

Bebo X Rodriguez created the “Jessie, Angelina, Asyria” page, which has raised more than $1,600 by 60 people in one day (as of Friday afternoon).

Another page, titled Asyria Ferrer, and created by Kathryn Torello, has raised more than $3,100 by 63 people in one day (as of Friday afternoon).

According to IMDb.com, Valentin was an actress who appeared in the 2014 film "Where Hearts Lie" and in two short films “Her Essence” in 2011 and “Clariol Herbal Pubessences” in 2012.

Visit the Jessie, Angelina, Asyria GoFundMe page here and the Asyria Ferrer page here.

Photo via GoFundMe