The father of the teen driver in a fatal Scarsdale crash said he warned his son not to drive as heartbreaking images emerged of the young victims.
“I told him, his mother told him, his older brothers told him, stop driving without a license, without a permit,” the teen’s father, also named Malik Smith, told CBS News.
“Anything happens, you get pulled over, you get in trouble for these things. Stop doing this.”
Smith and four other young relatives were killed when 16-year-old Smith crashed off a Scarsdale parkway in the early hours of Sunday.
Pictures of those that perished — between ages 8 and 17 — emerged in a series of social media posts by their parents as well as a fundraiser seeking help for their collective funerals.
Dad Anthony Billips called it “the most painful post I ever had to write in my life” as he revealed he, his wife, ex-wife and sister had “lost our precious kids in a fatal car accident.”
“Six kids [were] in the car only one survived,” he wrote of the 9-year-old boy who police said had been in the rear cargo area of the Nissan Rogue that flew off the Hutchinson River Parkway and into a tree around 12:30 a.m.
Malik Smith, Anthony Billips Jr., Zahnyiah Cross, Shawnell Cross and Andrew Billips were all killed in the crash.Faebook/Anthony Billips
“The pain we are feeling words [can’t] even express and we wouldn’t wish this to happen to anyone in this world,” he wrote.
Smith, 17-year-old Anthony Billips Jr., 12-year-old Zahnyiah Cross, 11-year-old Shawnell Cross and 8-year-old Andrew Billips were all killed in the crash, according to the Westchester County Police.
Anthony Billips made a heartfelt post about the loss of the children in the crash.Faebook/Anthony Billips
The 2021 Nissan Rogue driven by the teen was rented by a relative, Westchester County Executive George Latimer said at a press briefing.
It did not appear that the teen was speeding, Latimer said, but he allegedly failed to negotiate a turn in the northbound lanes of the Hutchinson River Parkway.
“We do not believe that speed was a factor in this accident,” he said. “The evidence on the scene indicates, but subject to final investigation assessment is that the operator was either distracted or fell asleep.
Two of the children lost in the fiery crash.Faebook/Anthony Billips
“The Hutchinson River Parkway in that downhill grade and with that bend to the left in the area of the accident is not an area of the Hutchinson River Parkway that has frequent accidents but it does require a driver to stay alert to be able to move with the changes in the roadway.”
Latimer said he drove on the same stretch of road two hours earlier.
Police said a good Samaritan who witnessed the crash put the young survivor, identified by authorities as Abraham Billips, into their own vehicle and called the boy’s mother before authorities arrived. Police had not interviewed Billips as of Monday evening.
Westchester County Public Safety Commissioner Terrance Raynor said the investigation is ongoing and currently “not criminal in nature.”
Nicole Cross lost her daughters Shawnell and Zahnyiah.Facebook/Nicole Cross
According to sources and news reports, the passengers in the Nissan Rogue were Malik’s cousins.
“He goes to the mall,” the grieving dad said. “He goes to get his ice cream with his cousin. They go to the movies. They walk about the mall. They do what teenagers and kids do. “So that’s, it’s just, I didn’t know he was driving by himself.”
Zahnyiah’s mom, Nicole Cross, also shared a series of harrowing posts with pics of some of the dead children — writing: “Mommy loves you girls sooooo F—ING much.”
“Lord Jesus I don’t understand why you had to take our babies from us please give us the strength,” she wrote in an earlier post Sunday.
“Lord God these kids didn’t deserve this like why is this happening,” she asked. “I’m begging we lost five kids in a tragic ass accident and don’t know what to do or how to handle this God please help us.”
She linked to a fundraiser that by Monday morning had raised nearly $20,000 of its $50,000 target “to help bury our children we lost.”
“Please anything will help we just want to put our babies to rest,” she wrote in that.
Police said all five kids were from Connecticut, and school officials said they were such new arrivals in Derby that they had yet to be enrolled in the school district there.
It was not immediately clear where they were heading when police say the 16-year-old driver crashed.
The SUV struck a tree and burst into flames.News12
“It’s the unimaginable,” said Derby’s superintendent of schools, Matt Conway.
“Having to now make arrangements for five of your children to be buried is a very difficult thing for anyone — one child, never mind five that you’re going to have to now make arrangements for,” Conway said.
Derby Town Clerk Marc Garofalo told Fox 61 that it was a tragedy that “leaves you without words.”
“My heart breaks for the parents of these kids and their families. It’s just such an enormous thing to try to comprehend,” he said.
Source: nypost.com
