‘Them boys were so loved’: Bartow remembers 4 friends killed in wreck
At the site of a deadly weekend crash where a car careened off a Bartow County highway, Danielle Walker planted a wooden cross in the grass to honor her 19-year-old son.
News of the wreck, which killed four young men and injured three others, quickly spread through the community.
The families placed four crosses and flowers at the intersection of Ga. 20 and Cline Smith Road in Cartersville in remembrance of Walker’s son, Xavier Thompson, and his three friends, all of whom lost their lives: Shaun Miller, 20, Isaiah Ross, 18, and Adhonest Thomas, 15.
As Walker and her husband cleared out the brush and set up the memorial with flowers and notes Monday evening, more and more people began to arrive, she said.
“Next thing I know, there were so many people. The word spread fast,” she said in an interview this week with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “It was a beautiful turnout. Oh, it was beautiful. Them boys were so loved.”
The four friends were inseparable, she said. Her son, nicknamed “Zay,” had just celebrated his 19th birthday, and all of them celebrated with him at Walker’s house just two weeks before the crash.
They were driving home Saturday night after an afternoon of fishing together. While heading west on Ga. 20, they failed to stop at a red light and collided with another car in the intersection, according to the crash report obtained by the AJC.
The three people in the other car, including a 15-year-old, were injured and taken to Wellstar Kennestone Hospital. One of the passengers, Marlena Welch, was seriously injured and still recovering, according to a GoFundMe campaign created to help cover the family’s medical bills.
“The car struck Marlena’s side and left her still in the hospital with various injuries including but not limited to multiple cracked spinal disks, broken ribs, a broken foot, burns from the seatbelt, whiplash and concussion,” the online fundraiser says. The AJC reached the GoFundMe organizer, who said the family is not speaking to the media at this time.
Ross’ girlfriend, who was driving behind the four who died, witnessed the crash and called right away, Walker said.
“Never in a million years would I have ever thought I’d ever get that phone call,” Walker said. “It was a horrible scene. It was horrible to see everything.”
She and her husband rushed to the crash site, where emergency responders were desperately trying to save the young men.
Thompson was flown to Kennestone, where he was treated for 18 hours before he died Sunday afternoon. The other three victims died the night of the wreck, according to the Georgia State Patrol.
“I really had hope that my son was going to pull through,” Walker said. “But boy, did he fight.”
The loss of all four was “definitely a punch to the gut,” she said.
The grieving families are asking for support from the community to help with the funeral costs. GoFundMe campaigns set up for each one are raising money to help cover those expenses.
“Shaun had a whole life ahead of him,” says the GoFundMe for Miller. “He was so much to so many people.”
The fundraiser for Ross calls him “an amazing, distinguished young man,” and the one for Thomas says his family is “heartbroken and struggling to process this sudden tragedy.”
Thompson’s funeral was held Wednesday afternoon, Walker said, and a memorial will take place Saturday. She said she is at peace knowing her son is reunited with other family members who have passed, including his father, who died when Thompson was 4.
“I know his dad was sitting there at the gates with open arms, waiting for him to come in,” Walker said through tears.
— Staff writer Alexis Stevens contributed to this article.
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