Mothers of teenage victims ask for justice after arrests of father and daughter
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Three grieving families shared their sorrow hours after two people were arrested as a result of a deadly crash that killed three teenagers. Their names are Kierra Brown, 15, David Evans, 14 and Tyjiana Velez, 13.
“All we want is justice,” said Evans’ mother Joycelyn Jackson. “This man should never be on the streets again. He should never be able to walk the streets again. All we want is justice.”
Okadema Link, 49, and his daughter Shantiana Willis, 24, each face nine charges including reckless homicide and drunk driving.
The mothers of the victims had never met each other before this incident, even though their children are friends. But they are bound together by this tragedy for life.
“I got out there and I was told my son was knocked 50 feet in a ditch by someone who left him. They left him out there and they didn’t care,” Jackson said.
The friends were walking together along the side of the road, not far from the apartment they were going to spend the night, when they were killed.
“Kierra, she was my sunshine. She was my baby,” said her mother Kashonna Brown.
“Everyone loved David. He had a smile that would brighten up any room,” said his mother Jackson.
“Everyone loved her. She was always excited,” said Velez’s mother Lashana Martin.
The struggle and the grief in their voices and tears is still so real.
They said they want justice. No short plea deal but a long prison sentence for Link who police say was driving 71 miles an hour less than a second before the collision, more than twice the posted speed along Kessler Boulevard, just south of 38th Street.
They see no difference for his daughter Willis who police say was driving 91 miles an hour before hitting another SUV which started the entire chain reaction.
“It’s not going to do anybody any justice if he was walking the streets again. Period. Period,” Jackson said. “Nobody’s mind is going to be at rest if this man walks the streets again.”
While they’d like to see a sidewalk and more lighting in the area, it’s not clear if that would have made a difference early Saturday morning.
This sisterhood is, after all, mothers. They have other children now to raise.
“Everybody has a good memory of him and that’s all I want to keep alive, the beautiful memories of our babies,” Jackson said.
“That’s all we have,” added Brown.
