ALBERTVILLE, Minn. — University of Minnesota freshman Rylie Saloum was full of life.
“She cared about people and her friends,” said her father, Scott Saloum. “She could rise a horse, she could act, she could sing.”
An 18-year-old girl who had big dreams.
“She wanted to be a movie actress get on the big screen, and so she was pursing her dreams,” he said.
In between studying theatre and German, she still found time to drive back home and tutor two kids in her hometown.
The last time she was home was the night before Halloween, Scott’s birthday. She gifted him a painting created by their dogs.
“There’s some lyrics on there from one of our wedding songs. It was the most special present I ever got,” he said.
The last gift he ever got from his only daughter.
Rylie was walking to her dorm from a performance at Mixed Blood Theatre near Cedar and Riverside Avenues, when she was hit and killed by an alleged drunk driver.
“She was just crossing, she had the right of way, crossing in the crosswalk and this guy ran a red light and hit her,” Scott said.
According to the complaint, Ali Abas Samator ran a red light, hit Rylie, and drove away from the scene. Officers didn’t see any tire marks, indicating he tried to stop. Police found the car he was in not far from the scene. The report said the officers could smell alcohol, and noticed Samator eyes were bloodshot and watery.
“You hear that a lot that people who over and over drink and drive, they don’t learn their lesson, and they end up killing somebody and then they only can get up to 15 years in person, after killing somebody, after repeatedly drinking and driving that’s ridiculous. I think the sentences need to be stiffer here,” Scott said. “He can go home in 15 years at the most and Rylie never gets to come home, and she did nothing wrong.”
Rylie died in the hospital three days after she was hit. But she was able to give other people life.
“She donated her organs and tissue. She saved five people’s lives because of that and changed the lives of 77 others,” he said.
Hospital staff, family, and friends lined the hall.
“It’s beautiful and devasting at the same time,” Scott said. “You’re walking alongside her, and you know this is the last time you’re going to see her. It’s called an honor walk; it was honor walking with her.”
After the walk, her brother raised a donate life flag outside Hennepin County Medical Center where it waved for two days, before the hospital mailed it back to her family.
Rylie is back home with her family in a butterfly urn where her wings are beating constantly.
“The radio was on a sports station, and I was backing up it switched to the Christmas station and Mariah Carey’s “All I want for Christmas” is you, and that was one of her, that was her Christmas song. And you can’t change the station as you’re backing the vehicle up and it just switched on its own. So that makes me stop and have a cry and you know listen to the song, yeah, I hope she you know keeps doing that because that does feel good,” he said.
Her family told KARE 11 Rylie has been saving butterflies since she was in third grade. They even have two butterfly gardens at their house, along with a bed of sunflowers.
“She loves summer and sunflowers,” Scott said.
Now, her urn sits in a room surrounded by sunflowers where her light will continue to shine.