Highway Patrol: ‘Charges pending’ in deadly wreck involving 12-year-old driver

NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCSC) - South Carolina Highway Patrol reports charges are pending in the crash where a 12-year-old driver left two sisters dead.

This information comes after the agency’s Multi-disciplinary Accident Investigation Team has completed its report from the July 1 incident. It states that the unidentified young driver was driving down Dorchester Road around 1 a.m. near the airport at 107 mph 2.5 seconds before the crash and 88 mph 0.5 seconds before. The speed limit there is 45 mph.

The roads were also slick from recent rainfall, the report states.

READ MORE: Family, community gather in N. Charleston to remember 2 sisters killed in crash

The child, who was driving his mother’s car, hit the car sisters Mary and Shamricka Dent were traveling in, killing both, the report states.

The former, who was driving, was attempting to turn left at Michaux Parkway when it happened.

The report states he reached speeds of 107 miles per hour shortly before the crash.

The 2010 Buick reportedly had a broken taillight.

The report states the 12-year-old ran a red light while a North Charleston police officer was attempting to pull him over for a traffic stop.

In an interview about a month after the crash on July 22, he told investigators he was afraid of the police department and that’s why he didn’t pull over. He also informed them he had taken his mother’s car to get food at Checkers, and was on his way back.

He didn’t remember the incident, nor how fast he was going.

He also told them his mother, Chimere McWhite, had taught him how to drive.

She told investigators this was true, but it was always on private property and never on the roads.

READ MORE: ‘This could have been prevented’: Mother of 12-year-old suspect in fatal crash speaks out

Photographs from the scene and diagrams of the crash show the Dent’s car flipped their car over into the median. The roof appears to have been completely smashed in.

Body camera footage from officer Andrew Johnson, reviewed by the Highway Patrol, shows the officer approaching the crash scene, handcuffing the juvenile and pulling him away from the burning vehicle.

“This is a chapter that cannot be closed until justice is served,” Ronnie Wilson, the uncle of the two victims, said. He said the family has not received updates from law enforcement or prosecutors since the Summer.

Solicitor Scarlett Wilson says the case is pending in family court and did not provide any additional details.

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