Florida boy, 14, drove stolen car that crashed, killing two and injuring five
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — It was 3 a.m. The car was stolen. The driver was 14. And his six passengers were only 12 and 13.
The seven Pompano Beach kids crammed inside the Toyota Camry found themselves trapped when the car flipped and landed upside down on railroad tracks. It would take 10 firefighters with special tools to cut them out.
Two girls died — one at the scene; another one at the hospital. Four suffered traumatic injuries. One had to be flown to the hospital by helicopter.
Authorities Monday identified the boy and six girls who departed on the fatal joyride that ended with the Camry crinkled and on its roof on Northwest 15th Street, west of Interstate 95 and north of East Atlantic Boulevard.
Anacshia Johnson, 13, died at the scene and Chayanna Nesmith, 12, died at Broward Health Medical Center in Fort Lauderdale, Broward Sheriff’s spokeswoman Keyla Concepcion said.
Chayanna’s sister, Teeanna Nesmith, 13, was hospitalized with a dislocated shoulder. The others were: Timnazia McDougle, 12; Ashanti Johnson, 12, Tatiana McKinly, 13 and Elijah Wilson, 14.
Wilson, a student at Pompano Beach Middle School, was the driver of the 2007 silver sedan when he lost control, hit a palm tree and a pole, rolled and came to a rest on its roof on the tracks, Concepcion said.
His grandmother, Anisa Smith, disputed that.
“We’ll need an investigation into that,” Smith said Monday. “He told us he wasn’t driving and that a girl was driving.”
She said her grandson was “coming along fine” in the hospital.
“My heart is heavy,” Smith said. “We have sympathy for the family (of the other injured children). We know the family. And we don’t want no fighting or bickering.”
The car had been stolen before sunrise Thursday from an apartment complex on Hillsboro Boulevard, Coconut Creek police said. It was the second time in two weeks it had been stolen from the owner’s driveway.
Debra LeSane, grandmother of the Nesmith sisters, said Teeanna was scheduled to get discharged from the hospital Monday night. Her physical recovery was progressing well, she said, but the realization that her younger sister had died was still taking hold.
“Teeanna told us in the hospital room that she is not crazy, she knows her sister died,” LeSane said. “She just wants to know where her sister is.”
Teeanna suffered a dislocated shoulder and heavy bruising to her left side, LeSane said. “She is in a lot of pain, and has back pain. She will be able to walk and do her sports again, but she will need to do a lot of therapy.”
The sisters, both students at Pompano Beach Middle School, were inseparable, LeSane said.
“They were just very close, they were very close,” she said. “They never wanted to be separated from each other. Even though Chayanna was the youngest, she was the big sister, she was very bossy.”
Chayanna loved dancing and cheerleading; Teeanna played basketball and liked to run track, LeSane said. On Saturdays, the sisters volunteered at a local tree farm.
The sisters were sitting next to each other during the crash, LeSane said, but she did not know where they were before they got into the car or other details from that night.