Police bodycam footage shows the harrowing moment a 16-year-old girl was burned to death following a horrific car crash in Los Angeles last month.
Destiny Villanueva, 16, died in a car after the 14-year-old driver crashed while speeding away from police at a traffic stop after noticing the vehicle’s headlights were off just after midnight on Feb. 20.
“It’s raining, we’re not going to chase,” one officer can be heard saying to another over the radio in recently released bodycam footage.
Shortly afterwards, surveillance footage from across the street shows the moment the Toyota Camry hits a traffic pole at high speed at Balboa and Ventura Boulevard and then ignites.
The hero officers run to the teens’ aid. “Can you get out?” one asks.
Surveillance footage from across the street shows the disturbing moment the Toyota Camry crashes into a bollard
The 14-year-old driver fell while driving away from police at high speed in an attempt to conduct a traffic stop
Destiny Villanueva, 16, died in a car crash in the early hours of February 20 in Los Angeles
“No,” the driver answers as the doors don’t open.
“I can’t get out, my leg hurts,” you hear one of the girls say.
The officers are then seen breaking the mangled car windows and piercing the airbag with a pocket knife.
“You have to get out of the car, get out,” the officers shout as the flames seem to get worse.
“Get the driver out,” one officer is heard saying to another, before asking the passenger, “Is there anyone else in the car?”
“No,” she answers, lying on the sidewalk
After removing the driver and the eighteen-year-old passenger from the car, officers drag the girls from the burning wreckage onto the street.
Police are again working with the teens to confirm that they were the only two people in the vehicle.
The officers are seen breaking the windows of the mangled car and puncturing the airbag with a pocket knife
After removing the driver and the eighteen-year-old passenger from the car, officers drag the girls from the burning wreckage into the street to safety
The vehicle was completely engulfed in flames and only child Villanueva was pronounced dead at the scene
The girl who had initially claimed that only the two had been saved then changes her story and says, “No, three.”
Police bodycam footage shows the officers running back to the vehicle and attempting to rescue the third passenger in the back seat, as they identified themselves as Villanueva.
However, the vehicle was completely engulfed in flames and only child Villanueva was pronounced dead at the scene.
Responding firefighters found her body in the backseat, wedged under the driver’s seat.
A family friend described Villanueva as a “precious daughter whose light was extinguished far too soon.” GoFundMe fundraiser set up on behalf of her mother.
The driver and surviving passenger escaped with minor injuries, police said.
Police confirmed the driver ‘did not show any signs of impairment’ after the collision.
All three people in the car were friends and lived near each other, authorities confirmed.
The incident remains under investigation and it is not yet clear whether the driver will face criminal charges for the accident.
The police cannot yet say whether the car was stolen or whether it belonged to the family of the underage driver.