Former Covington running back among three dead after crash
‘He always had one of the biggest smiles you ever see a kid have’
Marty Wheeler can still see T.J. Smith’s smile. The former Covington football coach said Smith always showed it on and off the field, especially once he got his braces removed.
“He always had one of the biggest smiles you ever see a kid have on his face. Very few times did you ever run across him when he was having a bad day,” said Wheeler, now the head football coach at Cleveland High School.
Smith, a former standout running back at Covington, was one of three people killed in a car crash following a police pursuit outside Dyersburg on Sunday morning. Smith, 21, died from his injuries Tuesday along with his 16-year-old brother, Tyronzen.
Tre’veon Davis, 22, was pronounced dead at the scene of the crash. Davis and T.J. Smith previously attended Covington while Tyronzen Smith was a current student there.
T.J. Smith played at Covington from 2013-16 and is third on the school’s all-time rushing yards list with 4,096 yards. His 50 career touchdowns is fourth on the school’s all-time list.
Wheeler coached Smith all four years and also knew Davis, who he said played on the basketball team. He recalled two memories from Smith’s junior season where he had 360 rushing yards in a win over Melrose and scored the winning touchdown in a 14-11 playoff win over Dyersburg.
But mostly, he thought about Smith’s smile and how friendly Smith was to his children.
“My kids thought the world of him. He always took time to speak to them, give them a hug, cut up with them a little bit. We all took it pretty hard,” Wheeler said. “Sometimes you don’t have answers why and I don’t know that you’re supposed to have answers why.”
Driver flees during attempted traffic stop
In a statement posted to Facebook, the Dyersburg Police Department said the car, a 2008 Infiniti, was one of several in a caravan “traveling at a high rate of speed on US 51 by-pass near Christie Street” when it was approached by a patrol car.
“The officer attempted to initiate a traffic stop on a vehicle, and it was immediately obvious to the officer that the driver of the Infiniti was going to evade the officer’s attempt to stop the vehicle,” Dyersburg Police chief Steve Isbell said in a statement. “The officer following departmental policy immediately disengaged the attempted traffic stop, and did not pursue the vehicle.”
The car continued south on Highway 51 and swerved to avoid hitting another car. Per a report from the Tennessee Highway Patrol, the car attempted to exit but “rotated counterclockwise striking concrete culvert with its rear end and overturned.”
None of the four passengers were wearing seat belts and the three who died were ejected. The driver, 18-year-old Jeremy Grant, also suffered injuries and was later charged with felony evading arrest.
THP is conducting the crash investigation and Isbell added the review of the incident is on-going.