Two killed in West End wreck while fleeing police

Antone Ray and Anthony Shaw, both 16, were killed early Tuesday when the car they were riding in, along with another teenager, struck a tree in the West End while fleeing police.

The wreck happened about 12:30 a.m. near the intersection of Fair and Lawton streets in southwest Atlanta, police dispatchers said.

“The preliminary investigation shows that a Honda Accord was observed by police being driven without its headlights on at Joseph E. Lowery Boulevard and Ralph David Abernathy Boulevard,” Atlanta police spokesman Otis Redmond said in a late-morning press release.

When the officer tried to stop the Honda, which had been reported stolen in Atlanta, the driver fled west on Abernathy, Redmond said.

“The vehicle fled the scene at a high rate of speed and made a right turn on Lawton Street,” Redmond said. “At this point, the officer reported that sight of the vehicle had been lost and then turned off the police emergency equipment.”

Several blocks later, in the 200 block of Lawton Street, the Honda left the roadway, went through a chain link fence and struck a tree at the rear of M. Agnes Jones Elementary School.

Witnesses interviewed later Tuesday morning said the Accord was traveling very fast when it left the roadway, and that there were no police cars immediately behind the Honda when it crashed.

Redmond said that police units were in the area looking for the Honda when they were flagged down by a citizen and directed to the accident scene.

The third individual, whose name is not being released by police, was injured in the accident. It took rescue crews about 90 minutes to extricate them from the vehicle.

Redmond didn’t address earlier television reports that some witnesses complained that officers responding to the scene didn’t try to help the teens in the mangled car, but stood by and watched as neighbors attempted to rescue the teens.