Prosecutors: DNA Links Teen To 2015 Crash That Killed 1, Injured 12
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Almost two years after a horrific Englewood neighborhood crash that left a woman dead and 12 people injured, a teenager from the Far South Side has been charged as an adult with reckless homicide.
DNA testing revealed that Trevante Reed, now 17, was at the wheel of a stolen minivan that slammed into an SUV about 5:45 p.m. on Dec. 12, 2015, Cook County prosecutors said at a Thursday bond hearing.
Reed was 16 when Chicago Police officers saw him blow a stop sign at the intersection of 65th and Morgan streets, driving a Dodge Caravan that had been reported stolen a day earlier, prosecutors said.
One marked and one unmarked squad car followed the minivan to 69th Street and Racine, where the officers activated their lights to pull it over.
Instead, Reed sped away, prosecutors said. The chase ended when the minivan ran another stop sign on southbound Carpenter and plowed into a Dodge Durango that had been going east on 71st Street, prosecutors said.
Eleven people were in the Durango, which was sent careening into a light pole and onto the lawn of a home across the street.
Chicago Fire Department paramedics took 13 people to hospitals, including 37-year-old Maria Carrion-Adame, who died less than an hour later, authorities said.
The crash happened near the home of Carrion-Adame, a mother of five who had been riding with her family to the annual Our Lady of the Guadalupe mass and pilgrimage in Des Plaines, according to a family fundraiser.
The injured ranged in age from 3 to 56, with five in serious or critical condition, including Carrion-Adame's 15-year-old daughter, family and fire officials said. One passenger suffered a fractured spine, and another broke a leg, prosecutors said.
Responding officers saw Reed and two other teenage boys run from the minivan, prosecutors said. They were arrested nearby, but none would admit to driving, prosecutors said. At the time, they were charged as juveniles with possession of a stolen vehicle.
Evidence technicians collected blood samples from the steering-wheel airbag and driver-side floorboard of the stolen Caravan, which later matched Reed's DNA, prosecutors said.
The West Pullman teen was jailed on a $250,000 bond, records show. He is due in court again July 19.
(Source: Sun-Times Media Wire © Chicago Sun-Times 2016. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
