ATLANTA — A family says a mother of three left to get something to eat and never returned home.
Georgia State Patrol said they were chasing a driver when he ran a red light and killed 43-year-old Tamara Taylor.
It happened on Friday around 3 p.m. GSP said its trooper was in the process of ending the pursuit when the collision happened on Campbellton Road.
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Channel 2′s Tom Jones spoke with the family on Tuesday during WSB Tonight at 11 p.m. Taylor’s family told Jones the chase should have never started.
“She did not deserve this. So it’s just kind of hard. Really hard,” Taylor’s daughter, Oriana Baugh, said.
Baugh remembers the last time she spoke to her mother that day. They were in their southwest Atlanta home about a mile or so from the crash scene.
“She was watching TV and I gave her this necklace that I was wearing. I’m wearing it right now. It was her Mother’s Day necklace. So. She loved it. She was supposed to come back and wear it but she never did,” Baugh recalled.
Taylor left to get something to eat and never returned home.
GSP said the driver, identified as Ryan Hicks, ran a red light in a Dodge Ram pickup at Campbellton Road and Barge Road and crashed into Taylor, killing the mother of three children, ages 17, 21 and 23.
Baugh says this has been hard on her and her family.
“Yeah. On the whole family. Whole family. Cause she was just going to get something to eat,” said Baugh.
GSP says a trooper began chasing the driver on MLK Jr. Drive. The agency said Atlanta Police requested its assistance. Troopers said the driver was driving at speeds of up to 110 mph.
A trooper said that given the time of day, traffic congestion on Campbellton, and the suspect’s driving patterns, he prepared to slow down and end the pursuit.
He said that’s when Hicks hit and killed Taylor, knocking her car into a pole.
“She was supposed to come home but she never did,” Baugh said.
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Baugh is angry at Hicks and Georgia State Patrol. She says the chase wasn’t worth losing someone as precious as her mother.
“You get one mother. You get one mother. I don’t have her. And I have a little sister. She won’t be here to see her graduate,” she said.
Court documents say police attempted to stop the driver a few days before the deadly crash, but he got away. Officers said he had a broken rear tail light, he was on Felony probation and he had marijuana packaged for sale in his truck.
Hicks now faces nearly dozens of charges, including Murder, 1st Degree Vehicular Homicide, Reckless Driving and DUI-Marijuana and Fleeing and Attempting to Elude.
He’s being held without bond.
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