NOTHING SHORT OF TRAGIC
Ex-con fleeing cops kills four pals, all 18, in horror crash
The four young men were good friends with bright futures before high-speed tragedy struck in Yonkers Tuesday night.
Four teenage best buddies died in a gruesome Yonkers wreck when an ex-con fleeing a traffic stop plowed his speeding car into their Nissan — splitting the vehicle in half, with the young “rising stars” catapulted to their deaths, officials said.
The devastating crash came after police tried to stop the white 2009 Infiniti sedan driven by convicted felon Devon (Telz) Haywood, 36, who initially appeared to pull over before slamming on the gas pedal and speeding down Riverdale Ave. around 9:30 p.m. Tuesday, police said.
The victims, all 18 and just six months removed from their high school graduations, were identified as Brandon Sierra, Randy Brisbane, Tamari Watkins and Anthony Cruz. The four teens were ejected from their car on impact and died at the scene, their bodies left on the road near the wreckage.
“They were just making a turn,” said Cruz’s uncle, Hector Blondet, 38. “It could have been anybody ... [Anthony] was a great kid. His smile was the best thing ever.”
A few clusters of memorial candles burned at the crash scene Wednesday in honor of the young victims. Both Sierra and Cruz left behind twin siblings, according to family members attending an evening vigil packed with weeping students, teachers, friends and family.
Darlene Reynolds, mother of Watkins, said the four teens were very close. Tamari and Brisbane had been friends since age 4, said the heartbroken parent.
Reynolds recalled rushing to the scene after a weeping relative gave her news of the crash just three days before Christmas.
“From the time I pulled up, I already felt like he was gone,” she said. “So I just took it, I accepted it. ... He was respectful, a beautiful kid.”
Haywood, who survived the horrifying crash, died a short time later at a nearby trauma center.
Sierra, Brisbane and Watkins were members of the Class of 2020 at Saunders Trades and Technical High School, while Cruz was a graduate of Riverdale High School. The Yonkers Council of PTA/PTSAs described the victims as “four rising stars,” and Watkins’ uncle recalled his nephew as a charismatic young man with a bright future.
“He was a wonderful kid,” said Lenny Watkins, 56. “Always had a smile on his face. He played basketball, and he wanted to be a rapper.”
The car with the teens was making a turn onto Riverdale Ave. from a side street when the Infiniti roared into their Nissan, tearing the vehicle in half. A video captured Haywood’s vehicle roaring through an intersection before the collision about a mile from the location where cops tried to pull him over.
“I see a guy running and saying, ‘Oh my God, oh my God!’ ” resident Maria Delgado told ABC 7 New York. “I get dressed up and come out, and the car is split in half with dead bodies on one side and on this side ... and the white car opposite from the way it was coming.”
Yonkers police said Haywood had a prior history of reckless driving and a long rap sheet, including arrests on drug and weapon charges since 2003. He spent four years in prison after a 2005 guilty plea to selling crack cocaine, and was jailed again in 2019 after pleading to felony drug possession, authorities said.
In April 2012, Haywood was shot multiple times as he left a store.
According to Yonkers Police spokesman Lt. Dean Politopoulos, officers attempted to stop the Infiniti after noticing the vehicle was moving erratically. Haywood slowed as if about to stop on Riverdale Ave. before he “accelerated at a high rate of speed southbound,” the lieutenant said.
The police car followed the fleeing Infiniti, arriving at the scene of the wreck about 15 seconds after impact to find the carnage caused by the runaway vehicle, said Politopoulos. Police video showed the cruiser trailing far behind the Infiniti, stopping at each intersection to see if it could pass.
Steven Mazzola, principal at Saunders Trades and Technical High School, spoke through the sobs of mourners about the four young men.
“These boys were good boys, they were good boys,” he said. “They did nothing wrong ... We’re all hurt very, very bad. My heart is broken.”