A Morehouse College student who was set to graduate in May was killed Sunday after a hit-and-run driver triggered a chain-reaction crash on I-20 West in DeKalb, police said.
Kavi Pudu, 21, of Dallas, Texas, was checking the lights on a rental vehicle when a car hit him about 8 p.m., DeKalb police Lt. Lonzy Robertson said.
At the time, he was in the median on I-20 at the Evans Mill Road exit ramp. According to a crash report obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Pudu was dragged down the interstate and pronounced dead on the scene.
“I keep thinking someone will say that Kavi is not dead but at the hospital waiting on us,” his mother, Keisha Ragoobir, said Monday in a Facebook post. “I am so thankful that my son was a strong believer. He loves the Lord with all his might. To the point he told me that he would risk living homeless if that meant he could reach more people with the Gospel!”
Less than an hour before the crash, she said Pudu wrote these words on his Facebook wall: “God has blessed me with this wonderful life.”
Pudu’s faith and his singing inspired his peers, who described him in social media tributes as a kind spirit. He was an active member of The Path Church in Atlanta.
“His spirit touched all the people he came in contact with,” the Morehouse Student Government Association said in a tweet.
And, students said, Pudu loved to perform, which served him well in his role as Morehouse’s mascot.
“Our hearts are heavy as we mourn the loss of our beloved brother,” Morehouse said in a post on the college’s official Twitter account.
Pudu is the third Atlanta University Center student to die in an accident in recent months.
Two Spelman College students were killed in wrecks a week apart. Rising senior Erica Lanier was killed July 26 in a suspected DUI crash involving fellow student Alexis Sims, according to an Atlanta police crash report. Princess Yates, a member of the class of 2019, was killed the previous week in a car crash in Monrovia, Liberia.
A vigil was held Monday night on the school’s campus.
Please join the Morehouse SGA, Senior Class Council, and AUC Texas Club as we come together to celebrate the life of our dear brother Kavi. pic.twitter.com/MNUEXOntyc
🌴 (@__TallPaul)
Authorities are searching for the driver who triggered the wreck that ultimately killed Pudu.
According to the crash report, a large, white SUV hit a 2005 Toyota Corolla. The impact pushed the Corolla into a 2003 Jeep Grand Cherokee that was in the median of the Evans Mill Road exit ramp. The Corolla’s airbag deployed and the driver lost control of the car, police said. That’s when the Corolla hit Pudu, a passenger in a 2016 Nissan Rogue. He was struck as he walked to the driver’s side to turn on the hazard lights.
Everyone except the driver in the white SUV stayed on the scene, police said. Officials have not released a more detailed description of the driver or the SUV.
Anyone with information about the deadly accident is asked to call police.
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