A 22-year-old man accused of aggressive driving met a terrible fate just half an hour after filming an illegal street takeover.
Antoine Hampton filmed the takeover in Memphis, Tennessee on Sunday and shared it on his Facebook.
The video showed the self-proclaimed content creator filming cars revving up and doing donuts in the middle of a busy street, while Hampton gave a thumbs down and told a friend “this is shit shit.”
He and his friends were clearly standing in front of a 65 km/h speed limit sign as cars sped past, leaving smoke in their wake, while other drivers tried to drive around them.
Just a half hour after the video was recorded, Hampton crashed his Infiniti QX70 into a Lexus SUV, Memphis police said, 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 Sunday when he was driving “aggressively” and crashed his SUV into a woman’s Lexus, according to police.
Police said Hampton was engaging in “aggressive driving” and was “reckless, careless” and exceeding the speed limit when he crashed his SUV into Boyd’s Lexus as she was turning left onto Hickory Hill Road around 8 p.m. according to WREG.
She was just a few feet from her home, driving into the neighborhood near Sunny Morning Drive, on her way home from running errands to help a family member.
Boyd, Baggett and Hampton were all pronounced dead at the smoke-filled crime scene.
Four others were taken to Regional One Hospital in critical condition, and a minor was taken to Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital in non-critical condition. ABC 24 reports.
About half an hour before the fatal crash, Hampton had filmed himself taking over a street
His video showed cars revving their engines and doing donuts in the middle of a busy street
“It was a complete mess,” said neighbor Tanya Allen told Fox 13 of the fatal collision. ‘The cars were destroyed 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 a big bang.”
She said she knew right away something was wrong.
“I said to my mother, ‘That didn’t sound right. That really didn’t sound right,'” Edwards told WREG.
Both women said drag racing has become a major problem in the region, with Allen noting that the cars are “just really fast and uncontrollable.”
“If they drive that fast, it can be deadly – and it did,” she said, arguing that speed checks on the road do not stop drivers from exceeding the limit.
“They drive like crazy and it’s really scary.”
51-year-old former teacher Lachell Boyd (pictured) was on her way home when she was killed in the crash
Hampton, Boyd and her passenger, 51-year-old Terry Baggett, were killed in the crash
Some residents argue that more needs to be done to discourage drag racing in the area. Bennie Cobb, a retired captain with the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office, says tougher and quicker action is needed.
“There should be an immediate and severe punishment that sets an example for law enforcement and protects these offenders from those who operate the missiles,” he said.
“There needs to be some urgency and we need to bring out the big guns,” Cobb said, proposing that police use helicopters and drones to locate takeover sites and publicly report what happens to offenders.
In the meantime, police are looking for witnesses to the fatal accident and others involved in the reckless driving that day.
They are also searching for six vehicles they believe left the scene of the accident.