The girlfriend of John Crawford III, who was fatally shot by police in a Beavercreek, Ohio, Wal-Mart store, was killed in a car crash Thursday, according to ABC 22 Now.
The news station reports that Tasha Thomas, 26, of Fairborn, Ohio, and 30-year-old Frederick Bailey of Dayton, Ohio, both died in the crash around 3 p.m. New Year's Day. According to ABC 22, police told that the car Thomas and Bailey were driving in was traveling at a high speed, believed to be between 90 and 100 mph, "when it crashed into a pole and overturned several times. Officers say Bailey was the driver. Both were ejected from the car."
The Montgomery County Coroner's Office used the records from the Aug. 5 shooting of Crawford to confirm that the woman in the car crash was, in fact, Crawford's girlfriend, since both the date of birth and home address matched. Thomas, who was in the Wal-Mart store with Crawford the day he was killed, was subject to relentless questioning by police before being told that he had died.
"For it to be New Year's Day, it's a tragedy for the family who lost a loved one," Joe Lewis, a witness to the crash, told ABC 22.
Lewis noted that after the accident, Thomas was still breathing. "I tried to use a towel to cover her up, but the police … and the ambulance was already here."
"They did a great job at trying to save that person, but we were later told that that person did pass away at the hospital," Sgt. Creigee Coleman, from the Dayton Police Department, told the news station. "This is a very delicate scene … very troubling scene, with being at the holiday and two people passed away on the holiday at a careless act of excessive speed."
Because of the amount of wreckage at the scene, police were unable to determine if Thomas and Bailey were wearing seat belts.
Read more at ABC 22 Now.