Pasadena Residents Mourn Victims Of Fatal Christmas Day Crash
PASADENA (CBSLA.com) — Residents have been leaving flowers at the site of a car crash that killed a woman and boy on Christmas Day.
The suspects were riding in an SUV that slammed into a minivan during a police pursuit at about 8:15 p.m. Tuesday. The crash occurred at Marengo Avenue and Maple Street.
Two of the five passengers in the minivan were killed - 25-year-old Tracey Noelle Ong Tan, of Glendale, and her 11-year-old cousin, Kenric Ng, of Daly City, according to coroner's Lt. Larry Dietz.
The other three passengers, who are all related to the victims, were seriously injured and taken to a hospital.
A few relatives and friends of the victims expressed their reaction online.
"Too shocked to even say anything...heard the worst news of my life," said Leeza Abigail Oro, who was friends with Ong Tan and Ng.
She continued:
Several people living close-by came to the crash site to leave flowers and take a moment to mourn the victims.
"It seemed like a scene out of a movie. You just couldn't believe it, I couldn't believe it," said resident Zinnya Aguilar, who came with her brother to leave flowers Thursday. "[The minivan] looked like an accordion. People were trying to help the people out of the car but the police refused and we just couldn't do anything about it."
"It hit me pretty deeply just because of the injustice of it," resident Peter Liu said.
The four people in the SUV were arrested and are each being held on $1 million bail at the Pasadena jail. They have not yet been arraigned.
Police identified the suspects as: 18-year-old Jada Mays, 22-year-old Darryl Williams, and 22-year-old Demauria Hannah, all of Pasadena, and 21-year-old Brittany Washington, of Los Angeles.
Detectives said Williams was driving the SUV.
Investigators are still looking into whether the pursuit and fatal crash was connected to a shooting earlier in the day, in which one man was killed and another critically wounded. The SUV appeared to have been driving away from a six-square-block area of Northwest Pasadena that had been cordoned off by police during the shooting investigation. Police said the SUV spotted near the shootings may match the SUV involved in the fatal crash.
Officials are also examining a gun reportedly thrown from the SUV during the pursuit to see if it shared any connection with the shootings.
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