A woman has died, one of her 6-year-old twin boys also suffered fatal injuries, and his twin brother was injured after a suspect fleeing the police crashed into her vehicle in Contra Costa, California, on March 23.
Thirty-one-year-old Ryniqueka Dowell was in her car with her twin sons last Thursday when a man police later identified as 20-year-old Ralph Ellsworth White III crashed into her vehicle at Parker Avenue and Fourth Street just outside of the Northern California city of Hercules. White allegedly was driving a stolen Mazda SUV.
Dowell was killed in the crash upon impact and her twin boys, Jamani and Jamari Humble were seriously injured and taken to the Children’s Hospital in Oakland, according to ABC7 News. One of the twins was in critical condition and had no brain activity before the family took him off life support on March 27. His brother is suffering from a broken leg as well as other injuries.
The crash happened in unincorporated Rodeo, California, on Parker Avenue in front of the home of Lewis Porter, who was one of the first people on the scene. Porter described hearing one of the twins screaming.
“I heard the little boy yelling in the car,” said Porter to local station KGO-TV. “So I just ran straight to the car. I just tried to hold the little boy. And, two people didn’t look too good in the car. I am praying for them. I know the mom didn’t make it.”
Dowell’s cousin, who wishes to remain anonymous, told the ABC affiliate that the police should refrain from high-speed chases in residential neighborhoods.
“When a car gets into a residential neighborhood, they need to stop chasing the cars,” said Dowell’s cousin. “They don’t care. They never stop chasing them. They need to stop chasing them. If the police had stopped chasing them, then this would never have happened.”
Witness to the crash Yadbindra “Tony” Dhillon said that the accident was “the most horrific thing” he’d ever seen. “It was terrible,” he added.
