(Memphis) Things turned deadly at Hacks Cross and Meadow Vale Drive early Sunday.
Deputies say 27-year-old Quincy Johnson got to the intersection and lost it, driving across three lanes of traffic and running into the path of a Ford Tempo with two adults, an 18-month-old, and 13-year-old inside.
It was a deadly ending for one of those children — 13-year-old Hezekiah Keyon Moss, a student at Germantown Middle School, who suffered head injuries and later died at the hospital.
The others in the car survived.
Deputies who responded to the accident say Johnson, who wasn’t hurt, admitted he had been drinking.
“He looked like he might have been intoxicated. He took a breathalyzer. It did show he had consumed alcohol and was intoxicated,” said Chip Washington, with the Shelby County Sheriff’s Department.
Johnson registered .083 on the breath test, over the .08 DUI limit.
Johnson said he had been to the A-Game Restaurant and Bar at Winchester and Ross roads before the accident. He had a large vodka drink called Ciroc Obama.
Officers said he had bloodshot eyes, slurred speech, and was unsteady on his feet.
Attorney Jeff Rosenblum has tried cases like this before and says the restaurant that served Johnson could very well face a civil charge, if 13-year-old’s family pursues it.
“If a bar owner or bartender serves alcohol to someone they shouldn’t serve alcohol to or they keep serving that person to a level where it is obvious they are intoxicated and allows that person to leave their bar, there can be civil liability,” said Rosenblum.
It would be up to Hezekiah’s family to pursue any civil charges.
They are dealing with their loss, which they planned to talk about in a news conference Monday evening.
Hezekiah’s school, Germantown Middle, had grief counselors on hand to help students Monday.
Johnson has been charged with one count of vehicular homicide and vehicular assault.