Teens who died in fiery crash after police chase ID’d
The Wayne County Medical Examiner identified Tuesday the two teenagers who died after driving a stolen car into a tree in Plymouth Township on Saturday.
Deqouya Carroll and Matt Wittrock, both 14, were identified by way of dental records, according to a statement from medical examiner spokesman Lloyd Jackson. Earlier information supplied by the examiner’s office said one was 14 and the other 15.
Cause and manner of their deaths are still pending.
Police said around 9:07 p.m. Saturday, they were alerted that a white Ford Mustang with multiple occupants was doing doughnuts in the parking lot of Garfield Elementary School on the 10200 block of Arthur.
Police said callers to 911 said the car crashed into garbage cans before exiting the parking lot.
Cops located the vehicle at the intersection of Yale and Plymouth Road, not far from the school. When the Mustang turned westbound onto Plymouth Road, a Livonia police officer attempted a traffic stop.
But the Mustang didn’t stop. It went faster.
Livonia police chased the vehicle, but called off the pursuit after the driver of the Mustang shut off the car’s lights near Newburgh.
Not long after, Plymouth Township police told Livonia police that the fleeing vehicle had crashed on Plymouth, west of Haggerty, and that both occupants died. That’s about a mile from where Livonia ended their pursuit.
The fatal crash took place at about 9:20 p.m. and involved two vehicles, Plymouth police said in a statement on Sunday. No further details on the second vehicle were provided. When police arrived, the Mustang was “fully engulfed in flames,” the statement said. Both boys died at the scene of the crash.
The Mustang was stolen from a business in Plymouth, Livonia police said in a statement.
Carroll and Wittrock were both freshmen at Livonia’s Churchill High School, according to a statement from Livonia Public Schools. The school district said it will be offering grief counselors to anyone who might need them.
“Tragedies such as this affect our entire community and we respectfully ask that people allow the police department to do their investigative work and allow the families and friends of these two young men the opportunity to grieve in private.”