CHARDON, Ohio — A Chardon mother is devastated.
“I lost two kids at one time. Like losing one is horrid, but losing two at once,” Shasta Prince said.
Prince is also desperate for answers.
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Both of her adult sons died in a fiery head-on wrong-way crash on State Route 176 that started as a police chase in Parma.
Prince wants to know why her sons didn’t stop after a car crash. But also why police kept chasing.
Police say the officer witnessed their car hit from behind as they zipped through an intersection in Parma.
Her sons were close and died together.
Prince believes both were pulled over in the same car less than two hours before by Parma police.
The heartbroken mother shared with us what she holds dearest.
Pictures of her two sons, 21-year-old Jibriel Allen and 23-year-old Darnell Prince.
“They were momma’s boys through and through,” Prince said.
Prince says a high-speed police chase was out of character for the two.
News 5 Investigators asked what she thinks happened.
“I think they were scared,” Prince said
In the ODOT video, you see Darnell’s Honda zip through an intersection to get back onto the highway. Then seconds later, the Honda turns from the median, going the wrong way and crashing head-on into a car driven by Esenje Goodman.
“They’ve been pulled over before. They’ve never run from the police ever."
I always taught them, especially being young black men, if you get pulled over, just be respectful,” Prince said.
Just two hours before they died, the brothers posted a video of them being pulled over in Parma. Police say it was for speeding.
“There was no phone call, nothing,” Prince said.
Prince knew her sons would be in Parma visiting their cousin. She instead got a call from the Geauga Sheriff’s office.
“They weren’t horrible kids at all. They made a stupid choice, and I’m the first to admit that whatever happened, they should have just stopped, but I get young black men, two young black men, period they don’t know what’s going to happen,” Prince said.
Their officer started chasing after witnessing a crash in Parma. Darnell’s Honda was hit from behind and didn’t stop.
“The other kid that was in the car said after that my son just took off because he didn’t know what was going to happen, and he was scared, so he just took off,” Prince said.
We asked if she believed they were trying to get away from the police when they made the wrong-way turn.
“I don’t know, I haven’t been able to watch the whole video,” Prince said.
The woman they hit thought she was going to die that night.
She is now recovering from broken ankles, ribs and a jaw. She expressed sorrow for Prince’s sons.
‘It’s not really worth it. I really do feel bad those kids lost their lives,” Goodman said.
Prince says she got to speak with Goodman too.
“She said that she wasn’t mad at me. She didn’t blame the boys. She said they shouldn’t have died like that,” Prince said. Prince wants to know why the police decided to chase them.
“I want to know the truth. I want to know what the officer thought was so detrimental that he felt the need they needed to be stopped that bad,” Prince said.
Some answers she may never get.
“Maybe there’s something that would make it make more sense,” Prince said.
