GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas — Four people were killed when a man who is suspected of street racing crashed into their SUV in Grand Prairie on Saturday, police said.
The crash happened around 8:15 p.m. on South Belt Line Road near Kingston Drive, according to a news release from the Grand Prairie Police Department.
Five people were riding in a Chevy Traverse that was heading north on Belt Line. When the Traverse turned left onto Kingston, it crashed with a red Dodge Charger, according to police.
Three people in the Traverse died at the scene and a fourth died at a hospital, police said. A fifth person from the Traverse was in critical condition.
Family relatives have identified the victims as a family of five. The father, Jessie Rosales, the mother, Lorena Rosales, and their daughter, 13-year-old Stephanie Rosales, and 6-year-old son, Angel Rosales, all died. The fifth victim in ICU is their son, 17-year-old Anthony Rosales.
“We're just trying to see if he's gonna be able to survive and I just want the best for him,” Jessie’s sister Delia Rosales told WFAA Monday. “We cannot believe it. We're still waiting for my brother to come by. He doesn't show up,” she said.
She describes her brother as their family’s backbone.
“We were always together. Traveling together. Basically. We were all a united family,” she said.
And says the way this all unfolded, breaks her heart.
“They were in Six Flags, then they went to a Panda Express,” she said.
Police said witnesses reported that the Charger was speeding and racing another vehicle, a white Dodge Charger Daytona with a black hood and roof. The Daytona drove away from the scene after the crash, according to police.
According to a police affidavit, footage from a nearby business caught the crash on camera, showing the red Dodge Charger driving at a high rate of speed. Police say that footage also showed the white Dodge Charger drive by slowly. After the wreck, the white Charger was later seen by a traffic pole camera running a red light at S. Belt Line Road and Kingston Drive.
The affidavit claims witnesses on the scene saw the two Chargers revving their engines and racing before the crash.
Yvette Acosta was pumping gas nearby when it happened.
“I just heard a real loud bang like a, like an explosion and I saw the vehicles roll twice, two people get ejected and the vehicle just caught on fire so fast,” she said. “I haven't been able to sleep because uh I hear the screams of the people.”
The driver of the Charger that crashed into the Traverse was identified by police at Jaime Mesa, 20, of Irving. He was taken to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
Mesa faces charges of racing on a highway causing death, manslaughter, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and racing on a highway causing serious bodily injury.
Police later found the driver of the white Charger Daytona that drove away from the crash scene. Anthony Morales, 22, faces charges of racing on a highway causing death and racing on a highway causing serious bodily injury, police said.
“They're gone and they're gone forever. And I know they're in custody supposedly, but they're not gonna bring them back,” Rosales said.
A sad truth the Rosales family will have to cope with.