Memphis, Tenn. — Memphis police say a 9-year-old girl is dead after an early morning crash in Orange Mound.
The crash reportedly happened just before 5 a.m. Sunday morning, at the intersection of Spottswood and Goodwyn.
Kerwin Luckett was in his home preparing to celebrate his daughter’s graduation when, just before 5 a.m. Sunday morning, when he heard a thump.
“I heard a baby crying as soon as I stepped outside, so I rushed over there and pulled the door open. The baby literally fell into my arms,” Luckett said.
As he continued to look in the truck he saw another child.
He brought them into his home with his family, told a neighbor to dial 911 and went back out to help Racqual Conner, the woman who he says is their mother.
Police say the truck left the roadway and crashed into a tree on the south side of the road. 9-year-old Jaliya Lewis, along with two other children, was taken to the hospital.
While the other two children received non-life threatening injuries, Lewis died from hers.
Investigators determined that none of the children were wearing seat belts. The children were reportedly thrown into the front seat area of the truck when the crash occurred.
With a child of his own, Luckett says he was only doing what the thought was right.
The driver of the vehicle, 30-year-old Racqual Conner, told police that she fell asleep behind the wheel.
Conner has been charged with criminally negligent homicide, driving with a suspended license and no insurance and three counts of violation of the child restrain law.
This is the spot where 9-year-old Jaliya Lewis lost her life in a car accident this morning. Neighbors tell me her mother was driving when she fell asleep. Two other children were in the car. | @3onyourside pic.twitter.com/P012omzc3v
— Symone Woolridge (@SymoneTV) May 20, 2018