A tragic incident unfolded in Georgia early Sunday morning when a teenager lost her life after the car she was in became involved in a high-speed police chase that ended in a deadly crash.
The 19-year-old, Naveah McGowan, initially intended to stay home on Saturday night. However, her plans changed when a friend invited her to accompany them, according to her sister, Tajjone McElyaher.
McGowan joined her friend in a vehicle driven by Quintavias Martin, whom McGowan did not know personally, as noted by McElyaher.
Snellville Police Department officers conducted a traffic stop on the car around 2:30 a.m. on a highway in Lawrenceville, part of the Atlanta metro area.
Instead of complying, Martin accelerated away, sparking a high-speed pursuit. In a statement to WSBTV, McElyaher recounted, “Everybody in the car was asking, ‘Please just stop the car.’”
Ignoring the passengers’ desperate requests, Martin continued to speed until he struck the median, losing control. The vehicle then collided with a mailbox and a utility pole before flipping multiple times, according to police reports.
The two passengers other than McGowan survived with serious injuries, but she was pronounced dead at the scene.
‘It is unbelievable. She was 19. She thought she was just going out to hang out with friends,’ McElya told WSBTV.
Naveah McGowan, 19, died in the early hours of Sunday after the man driving the car she was riding in led police on a high-speed chase that ended in a fatal crash
The car’s driver, Quintavias Martin, 19, was pulled over by police on Scenic Highway in Lawrenceville (pictured), before taking off and leading police on a high-speed chase
McElya, who spoke with the survivors, explained that all of the passengers had taken their seatbelts off during the chase, because they wanted to be prepared to get out of the car as quickly as possible if it stopped.
Police did not explicitly state why Martin sped off during the traffic stop, but according to Gwinnett County Sheriff’s Office records, the young man was charged with possession of a firearm or knife during a crime and possession of a sawed-off shotgun, which is an illegal weapon in Georgia.
Martin was also charged with fleeing or attempting to elude police. He was arrested shortly after the crash and booked into the Gwinnett County Jail Sunday morning, where he is being held without bond, according to county sheriff’s office records.
McGowan’s family set up a GoFundMe to help cover funeral and memorial expenses. As of Thursday night, the campaign has raised $1,075 of its $5,500 goal.
On the fundraising page, McGowan was described as ‘a bright light in the lives of everyone who knew her.’
The family also said she was ‘kind, strong, and full of love’ and that she ‘had a beautiful way of bringing warmth and joy into any room, and her presence will be deeply missed.’
Martin led officers with the Snellville Police Department on the chase before losing control of the vehicle and flipping over multiple times, killing McGowan and seriously injuring the other two passengers in his car
According to Georgia law, possession of a sawed-off shotgun is a felony that carries a sentence of five years in prison.
Possession of a firearm or knife during a crime is also punishable by a five-year prison sentence that runs consecutively to other sentences.
Fleeing or attempting to elude police and subsequently causing a crash is punishable by one year in prison to ten years in prison.
In all, if Martin is convicted of all his charges, he faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.
