A 22-year-old man accused of aggressive driving met with a horrible fate just half an hour after filming an illegal street takeover.
Antoine Hampton recorded the takeover in Memphis, Tennessee on Sunday, and shared it to his Facebook.
It showed the self-described content creator recording cars revving their engines and doing donuts in the middle of a busy street, as Hampton gave a thumbs down and telling a friend ‘this s*** s****.’
He and his friends were clearly standing in front of a speed limit sign – showing that the limit was just 40mph as cars flashed by, leaving smoke in their wake, while other drivers tried to get around them.
Just half an hour after the video was taken, Memphis police say Hampton crashed his Infiniti QX70 into a Lexus SUV – killing him, the other driver, 51-year-old former teacher Lachell Boyd, and her passenger, 51-year-old Terry Baggett.
Antoine Hampton, 22, was killed on Sunday when police say he was engaging in ‘aggressive driving’ and crashed his SUV into a woman’s Lexus
Police reported that Hampton engaged in ‘aggressive driving’ and was ‘careless, reckless’ and traveling above the speed limit when he crashed his SUV into Boyd’s Lexus as she was making a left-hand turn on Hickory Hill Road at around 8pm, according to WREG.
She was just a few feet from her home and was turning onto her subdivision near Sunny Morning Drive – after returning from helping a relative.
Boyd, Baggett and Hampton were all pronounced dead at the smoke-filled scene.
Four others were rushed to Regional One Hospital in critical condition, and a minor was brought to Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital in non-critical condition, ABC 24 reports.
Just about half an hour before the fatal crash, Hampton had filmed himself at a street takeover
His video showed cars revving their engines and doing donuts in the middle of a busy street
‘It was a big mess,’ neighbor Tanya Allen recounted to Fox 13 of the fatal collision. ‘The cars were mangled and the horns were going off.’
Stacy Edwards also said she heard cars speeding down Hickory Hill Road ‘but the last time I heard it, it was big old boom.’
She said she immediately knew something was wrong.
‘I told my mom, ‘That didn’t sound good. That really doesn’t sound good,’ Edwards told WREG.
Both women said drag racing has become a major issue in the area, with Allen noting that the cars are ‘just very fast and out of control.
‘If they’re going that speed, it can cause death – and it did,’ she said, arguing that the speed check on the road does nothing to deter drivers from going over the limit.
‘They’re driving like maniacs and it’s really scary.’
51-year-old former teacher Lachell Boyd (pictured) was on her way home when she was killed in the collision
Hampton, Boyd and her passenger, 51-year-old Terry Baggett were killed in the collision
Some residents now argue that more needs to be done to deter drag racing in the area – with Bennie Cobb, a retired captain of the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office, saying that there needs to be more severe and swift consequences.
‘There’s gonna have to be an immediate some kind of harsh punishment that sets the example from law enforcement for these violators for the ones that are operating these missiles,’ he said.
‘There’s gonna have to be some kind of urgency to this where we’re calling in big guns,’ Cobb said, suggesting police use helicopters and drones to pinpoint where street takeovers are happening and make it publicly known what happens to offenders.
But in the meantime, police are looking for witnesses to the deadly crash and others involved in the reckless driving that day.
They are also searching for six vehicles they say left the scene of the collision.