Driver in fatal wrong-way crash in Delaware County was shot

The Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation has released the identities of three men who died last month in a crash in Delaware County — one of whom had sustained a gunshot wound before the crash, according to a news release from the DCI.

The crash happened Oct. 13 on Highway 20 east of Earlville. Tijuan Devell White, 50, of Robbinsdale, Minn., was driving a 2014 Chevrolet Impala east when “for an indeterminate reason” his car crossed the median and continued driving east in the westbound lanes for over a mile, the news release said.

The wrong-way car then collided head-on with a Freightliner truck traveling west. Both vehicles became engulfed in flames. The driver of the Freightliner — Ricky Charles Bergfeld, 62, of Peosta — sustained minor injuries.

White and his two passengers — Tyrese Devell Johnson, 21, of Minneapolis, Minn., and Augustine T. Monboe, 38, of Robbinsdale, Minn. — were all killed.

White sustained a gunshot wound before the crash, but because of the extensive fire damage investigators have not been able to determine whether the gunshot or the crash and fire caused his death, according to the news release. Investigators also haven’t found any evidence indicating that the gunshot came from outside White’s car.

The investigation is ongoing, the release states.

Comments: (319) 398-8328; emily.andersen@thegazette.com