An Instagram fitness trainer with over 150,000 followers was arrested Tuesday night in Kennewick, Washington, after being involved in a fatal hit and run. According to the Tri-City Herald, Katie Summers is facing charges of felony hit-and-run and vehicular homicide for hitting a man on a moped.
The man, Leonel Birrueta, died at the scene.
Summers fled the scene and was later found at a nearby Albertson’s and police believe she was under the influence of either alcohol or drugs at the time of the accident. She admitted to drinking and smoking alcohol before the accident, according to court documents.
Her bail was set at $500,000 during a Wednesday court appearance.
Who is Katie Summers?
Katie Summers, 28, is better known on Instagram under the name @LoseItConKatie. The trainer amassed thousands of followers after losing nearly 100 pounds after a gym employee called her a “fat b****.”
“After being insulted over my weight I knew I had to fight back and since then I’ve gone on a very dramatic body transformation,” the mother of two told the Daily Mail in 2016.
She turned to bodybuilding and, later, online fitness coaching where she coined the hashtag #strongsmartcapableworthy, but deleted her social media profiles after her arrest.
Victim’s friends and family calls for ‘positivity’
Birrueta, 31, leaves behind a daughter and fiance Rachel Juarez.
Those close to Birrueta praised his positivity and ask people to use the “same grace and compassion” that he had during his life.
“With all the negativity that we all face… with all of the negative feelings we face now… we have to remember that Leo’s positivity has to come through somewhere,” longtime friend and coworker Elizabeth Liston told KNDO in Washington. “We don’t have him to give that to us anymore… we have to find it in ourselves. We have to bring a little bit of Leo into everybody’s life and everybody’s day.”
A GoFundMe has been set up to raise money for Birrueta’s funeral and his family.
Though Liston wouldn’t comment on the investigation, she did say that his family hopes “for an outcome they can all accept with the same grace and compassion that Leo would have.”
