MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A Frayser family’s Christmas nearly turned deadly when a car plowed into their living room.
Laura Smith and her children were gathered around the Christmas tree in their home on Whitney Avenue when it happened.
“It was a loud noise. I’m talking about the loudest noise you ever heard,” Smith says.
The car, a Pontiac, stopped feet away from Smith’s 4-year-old daughter and 12 and 6-year-old sons, who were opening presents at the time. Panicked, she whisked her kids away to a bathroom in the back of the house.
“I had to get the kids to safety,” Smith says.
Investigators say Quentavious Knox and his cousin, Jarquaireous Knox, crashed the Pontiac while being chased by police. Both of them bailed out of the car before it hit the wall.
“They ran through the backyard and tore down the fence and everything like that,” Smith says.
Investigators say they stole the vehicle at gunpoint nearly two hours earlier from a man parked in the driveway of his New Chicago home. Police spotted the car a couple miles away and chased the suspects when they sped off.
The two cousins were eventually found hiding in a nearby storage shed after crashing into Smith’s house and taking off on foot.
“They were real young,” Smith says.
Quentavious is 22 and his cousin is only 17. Both are now facing serious charges that include carjacking and reckless endangerment.
“They got a lot of growing up to do,” Smith says.
The crash happened Christmas Eve morning, which is when Smith celebrates with her children.
“I’m glad we’re all okay,” she says, “It was a Christmas miracle, basically, because it could have ran us over.”
