North Texans continue to mourn Garland family killed in street-racing crash
GRAND PRAIRIE — Reaction continues to pour in as the North Texas area grieves for a Garland family killed in a street-racing-related crash.
A memorial has been set up in front of the Fuel Stop gas station off S. Beltline Road in Grand Prairie.
Police say the crash happened there on Saturday when two drivers were racing one another on Beltline. Investigators say one of the drivers hit the Rosales family at a high rate of speed, causing their car to flip and catch fire.
Parents Jessie and Lorena Rosales died at the scene, along with their two children, 13-year-old Stephanie Rosales and 6-year-old Angel. A third child, 16-year-old Anthony Rosales, is still recovering in the hospital with serious injuries.
"There's a whole family gone, there is. It's so devastating to hear," said Lili Trujillo Puckett, founder and executive director of the nonprofit organization Street Racing Kills.
Puckett says she lost her own 16-year-old daughter to street racing, which led her to start the nonprofit and educate young teens about the dangers of street racing and aggressive driving.
"It starts in the classroom," Puckett said. "For 10 years, I created education for schools, diversion, talking to politicians and legislators to change laws, trying to do everything we can to prevent us from seeing these crashes happen over and over again."
Police say there has been an increase in street racing across North Texas.
"Often street racing speed kills no matter what. Our cars are not made to go that fast and we all need to be careful out there," said Officer Jonathan Crocker with the Arlington Police Department.
Crocker says Arlington PD created a special traffic unit last year to crack down on the uptick in speeding.
"It's just community policing and going out there and stopping speeders — even if you're doing 10-15 mph over — we will pull you over just so people will get the message that it's not okay," Crocker said.
Other departments like Dallas also have street-racing task forces set up to combat the issue.
Texas State Rep. Chris Turner, who represents the Arlington and Grand Prairie areas, sent CBS News Texas a statement saying in part: "I voted for two bills last session to enhance penalties for street racing and provide prosecutors and law enforcement additional tools to address these crimes."
Anthony Morales, 22, was arrested as a suspect. Police say he fled the scene after the crash and was involved in Saturday's street-racing incident.
The second suspect, 20-year-old Jaime Mesa, is still in the hospital and will be arrested on four charges of manslaughter.
A family friend says the three Rosales siblings involved in the crash were planning to begin their first day of school of the fall semester in Garland ISD on Monday.
