A pair of New Orleans, Louisiana-area teens are dead and a third victim is critically injured after a car full of suspected shoplifters crashed into their vehicle while trying to evade police last Wednesday night, officials said.
Giselle Smith and Semaj Morris, both 17-year-old students at West Jefferson High School, and Paris Kiper, Smith’s 21-year-old sister, were in a Toyota Camry when a car being driven by 30-year-old Joneaka Smooth slammed into them, WVUE reported.
Smooth was erratically driving away from deputies responding to a shoplifting call with two other alleged accomplices in the car when they crossed multiple lanes, went over a median, and collided with the Camry, police said.
Both high schoolers were declared dead, and Kiper remains in critical condition, family members told the local outlet.
Smooth allegedly fled the scene of the crash, but surrendered herself to police on Thursday.
She is now facing charges of manslaughter, hit-and-run, and fleeing police, while another alleged accomplice, 37-year-old Lisa Herring, was detained and the third remains at large.
Smith’s family said the teen’s tragic death comes just months after losing her mother to colon cancer in July.
“Giselle was excited to finish her senior year, fulfilling her mother’s wishes, including choosing her school ring,” the grieving family said in a statement to WVUE. “She delighted in spending time with her siblings, friends, nieces and nephews. Her smile was contagious, much like our mother’s.”
Court records obtained by the outlet show that Smooth has a hefty criminal history, already having pleaded guilty to two prior felony theft charges and two misdemeanor theft charges.
A Jefferson Parish judge sentenced the convicted felon to a two-year suspended sentence in 2023, which she now could be on the hook to serve after allegedly violating her probation.
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