CLAYTON COUNTY, Ga. — A Clayton County family wants answers about the moment their daughter and sister was hit by a driver who was fleeing police.
The driver is charged but the family believes others should be held accountable.
The collision happened at Riverdale Road and Garden Walk Boulevard Friday evening.
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It’s the call that every parent hopes they never get.
“Your daughter was involved in a critical accident and she’s in critical condition,” is what Gezell Reeves heard on the other end of a phone call early Saturday morning.
Her youngest daughter, 33-year-old Jasmine Reeves, was in the hospital. But by the time the family got to her, she was gone.
“She had broken legs, a severed liver that they had to put back together, something about a punctured lung. What was the trigger for me is she had so much bleeding on her brain that they couldn’t fix it,” Gezell Reeves said.
Jasmine Reeves was driving with two passengers in her car when she was hit by a yellow Camaro at Riverdale Road and Garden Walk Boulevard.
According to the Clayton County Sheriff’s Office, Deundra Smith hit Reeves while attempting to escape from deputies in a car chase.
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Smith was the suspect in a carjacking Friday evening in DeKalb County. But when the car was spotted in Clayton County, the Sheriff’s Office Cobra Unit attempted to pull the driver over.
According to investigators, when officers got out of their car, the suspect “fled from the scene at a high rate of speed.… fled for approximately 3/4 a mile before losing control of the Yellow Chevy Camaro crossing over into the opposite lane of traffic.”
The car hit Reeves’ car head-on.
“She did not deserve this,” her mother said.
Smith is facing a slew of charges, including vehicular homicide. While the Clayton County Sheriff’s office sent their condolences in a statement, Reeves’ family has questions.
“There had to be a better way to apprehend him that,” said Gezell Reeves. “If they didn’t chase him and caught him up in some type of roadblock, some type of trap, my daughter would still be alive.”
Two passengers in Jasmine Reeves’ car were also taken to the hospital. They’re expected to survive, but they’re in bad shape.
Jasmine’s family has set up a GoFundMe to raise funds to cover the funeral. They’re planning a candlelight vigil in her honor for Friday night at the crash scene.
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