Just weeks before graduation, a Lakewood High School senior is dead after a violent single-car crash just steps from the campus.
The car slammed into a big oak tree in the center median of 54th Avenue South.
Inside were three seniors who just got out of school. One senior, the driver, didn’t make it.
The black Toyota Corolla ended up wedged against the large tree trunk.
It happened steps from Lakewood High, right before the last bell.
“It’s a very serious accident. One of ’em was able to crawl out. The other one had to be extricated and one of them died at the scene,” said Yolanda Fernandez with the St. Petersburg Police Department.
Dead is the car’s driver, Bryson Welton-Williams.
“Me and him, both brothers. That’s what we used to call Bryson: brother. Just brother. Be like, ‘what up brother?’ I’m the really hit man now, we used to rule,” said Jamarkus Anderson, a good friend of Williams.
In the passenger seat was Joshua Heath, who is in the hospital with critical injuries.
In the back seat of his own car, having an afternoon snack, was Trey Lattimore.
He’s now home from the hospital.
“Trey’s doing good. Trey, he’s in a lot of pain. Lots of cuts and bruises from him climbing out through the window. He released the seatbelt, from the impact, and he climbed, got out of the window,” said Trey’s mother, Annmarie Lattimore.
The crash aftermath is remarkable. The passenger side of the car, which hit the tree, is demolished.
Friends of the victim who died tell News Channel 8’s Peter Bernard, Bryson Welton-Williams was a good kid.
“If you was down, he’d just start making jokes ’cause he’d just start making jokes. It was funny to me,” said Bruce Lovett.
Trey’s mother said her son spent the afternoon crying, worried about Joshua and sick about Bryson.
“My heart just goes out for Bryce and his mom. Ya know, I feel really bad,” said Annmarie.