Teen who fled cops charged in crash death
A teen driver has been charged with vehicular manslaughter for a crash that killed his passenger after he fled a Brooklyn car stop, police said Tuesday.
Ackeem Chambers, 18, was still recovering at Kings County Hospital on Monday when cops charged him with vehicular manslaughter, vehicular assault, reckless endangerment, reckless driving and failure to obey a traffic signal.
Chambers had just fled a car stop in his 2015 Hyundai Sonata when he T-boned a 2007 Toyota Solara at the intersection at Eastern Parkway and Rogers Ave. in Crown Heights about 2:05 a.m. on Sunday, police said.
Cops tried to pull Chambers over for blowing through a traffic signal, but the teen hit the gas and sped off before striking the Solara. Cops did not pursue the teen when he pulled away from them, an NYPD spokesman said.
Jada Rollins, who was in the back seat of the Sonata, died at Kings County Hospital.
Rollins and Chambers were friends, her devastated mother, Toshana Williams, told the Daily News Tuesday. “They grew up in the neighborhood together,” she said. “I don’t have anything to say about him. You know, he’s gonna get what’s coming to him.”
Chambers and his other two passengers, both 19-year-old men, were taken to the same hospital, where Chambers was listed in critical condition. The two 19-year-old victims were in stable condition.
The 61-year-old woman driving the Solara was also taken to Kings County Hospital in stable condition.
Williams said her family was “barely” holding up after Rollins’ death.
“She was a great kid. She was very artistic. She used to do coding, computer coding. She was to graduate from high school this year.,” she said. “You know, she was just a regular teenage kid. She was my girl.”
Rollins, 18, lived less than two blocks from the scene of the crash and was on her way home from a friend’s birthday party, her mother told the News on Sunday. Rollins’ mother had texted her just minutes before the crash to remind her of a quickly approaching curfew. “Her curfew was 2 a.m.,” Williams said. “She said, ‘I’m 10 minutes away.’ ”
Chambers’ arraignment was pending in Brooklyn Criminal Court on Tuesday. He has a prior arrest for drug possession from September, cops said.
Chambers lives in Bath Beach.