MIAMI – Miami Gardens police said Tuesday that the man accused of causing a deadly crash over the weekend that killed four people, including children, was speeding at nearly 100 mph at the point of impact.
The crash happened Saturday at NW 170 Street and 37th Avenue shortly before 6 p.m.
The driver of a Kia Sorento hit a Nissan Altima, according to Miami Gardens police. The impact sent the Nissan into a Cadillac Escalade before it crashed into a fence.
The driver of the Kia has been identified as 25-year-old Antonio Wilcox Jr. of Naples, Florida, police said. Wilcox is being charged with four counts of vehicular homicide.
“Mr. Wilcox was driving at approximately 99 mph, accelerating at the point of impact. The throttle was all the way down,” Emmanuel Jeanty, executive officer with the Miami Gardens Police Department, said Tuesday in an update on the crash.
He said there were eight people inside the Nissan at the time of the crash, three adults and five children. They’ve been identified as a mother, her four children, their grandmother, an adult woman and the fifth child is a neighbor.
Several members of the same family died in the crash
Those who died have been identified as 51-year-old Rosa Mae Jones, 10-year-old Irena Johnson, 8-year-old Zarina McCall and Kamari Graham.
The family of the three children who died said Jones was their grandmother. The children’s mother survived, but remains in the hospital. They said the group was headed to a movie to celebrate the birthday of one of the children who did not survive.
Jeanty confirmed that three children died in the crash, not four, as police had earlier reported. He said one adult and one child remain in the hospital in critical condition and their conditions could worsen.
Wilcox, driver of the Kia, also remains in the hospital undergoing treatment.
Those in the Cadillac Escalade received minor injuries, according to Jeanty.
Jeanty said Wilcox, who had alcohol in his system at the time of the crash, is being charged with four counts of vehicular homicide and will be held without bond once he’s released from a hospital in Broward and brought to Miami-Dade.
“Mr. Wilcox made a conscious decision to get into that vehicle and drive in a reckless manner with no regard for human life,” Jeanty said.
Jeanty said this accident was one of the worst that he’s seen in his career.
“I can tell you right now in my law enforcement career this has been the worst accident that I have witnessed. As a matter of fact, our traffic homicide detective has even stated the same in their many years of investigating these types of crashes,” he said.
