In the early morning hours Friday, Illinois State Police pulled over a young woman driving west in the eastbound lanes of the Eisenhower Expressway and arrested her for driving under the influence.



After about two hours, the woman was released and dropped off by state police at a BP gas station at Mannheim Road near the expressway, the agency said.



Thirty minutes later, the woman, identified by her family as Diana Paz, 25, was killed on the Eisenhower. She was walking in a marked median area along the inbound lanes when she was struck by a Toyota truck, state police said.



The series of events left Paz's family shocked and baffled Friday evening. They questioned why police would have released Paz so close to the highway if she might still have been under the influence.



"They should have held her in the station and not let her out until she was sober," said the victim's father, Jose Luis Paz, standing outside his South Chicago home where Paz lived with her 5-year-old son.



Authorities were not releasing the name of the victim on Friday, but Paz's family said that law enforcement officials told them Friday morning that it was Diana.



Police said they arrested the woman around 3:23 a.m. after she refused to take a Breathalyzer test and failed a field sobriety test. She was taken to the Westchester police station, state police said. When she was released at 5:40 a.m., a state trooper offered her a ride and she asked to be taken to the BP gas station, officials said.



State police said in a statement that the woman was "alert" when the trooper dropped her off.



"She stated that she had no family or means of transportation and requested a ride to a nearby gas station," the state police said. "Based on this reasonable request, as a courtesy, the Illinois State Police trooper transported the female subject to the gas station."



Some law enforcement departments do not allow drop-offs. State police policy allows them on occasions when stranded motorists need assistance, and in that case the trooper will provide the ride, said state police spokeswoman Monique Bond.



If they do, they have to notify a supervisor of the transport, which was done in this case, she said.



Bond also noted that the woman was "coherent, alert and had bonded herself out" when she asked to be taken to the gas station.



Still, Paz's family, which gathered at her home Friday with friends and neighbors, said they believe police should have done more to ensure she ended up somewhere safe.



They described Paz as a vivacious woman who had enrolled a few months ago in community college and was studying criminal justice.



"I was proud of her," her father said. "She (had) decided to start life all over again."



Paz's younger brother, Luis Paz, said he last saw his sister on Thursday after she had returned home from school and was on her way to work at her job at a local senior home. Luis, 19, said she asked him to pick up her son, Erik, who just started kindergarten.



"She was lying down on the couch and we just said bye to each other," said Luis, shaking his head. "I'm still shocked. She left behind this little kid, who is just starting his life."



When Diana Paz did not return home that night, her family assumed that she had stayed at a co-worker's home. But on Friday morning, Luis said authorities came to their home to tell them the news. A co-worker later told them that Paz had gone out with her co-workers after work, Luis Paz said.



"I burst into tears when I heard," said Paz's sister, Maria, 27. Maria Paz said Diana's 26th birthday was this Sunday and their mother had planned to surprise her with a party.



State police do not know what she was doing on the expressway, and plan to review video footage from the gas station. The manager at the station said that a state police trooper had taken the digital video recorder and would not comment about what was on it.



alwang@tribune.com



asweeney@tribune.com



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