NEW ORLEANS — The New Orleans Police Department announced that a woman who was hurt in a fiery car crash on Wednesday has died from her injuries.
Police made the announcement shortly after midnight Friday morning.
According to police, the case involves a car that officers spotted on Wednesday night at the intersection of Toledano and South Derbigny streets. The NOPD says that the officers believed the car was stolen so they turned on their unit’s lights and tried to stop it.
But according to police, the car sped away. At that point, the department says that the officers turned off their lights and stopped pursuing the car. Moments later, according to the NOPD, officers saw smoke in the distance on Washington Avenue. They arrived at the scene at the corner of Washington Avenue and South White Street where the car had crashed into the Unity One Beauty Supply and Hair Salon, sparking a fire.
The two people who were inside the car were pronounced dead at the scene. Initially, police said that a woman who was inside the salon was also killed. But later, the department announced that the woman survived along with two children who were also injured.
Friday’s announcement from the department of the woman’s subsequent death brings the number of people killed in the crash to three.
The NOFD says the fire that was caused by the impact of the car with the salon went to three alarms. It took about two hours to get the fire under control.
While the department said — on Wednesday night — that the officers called off their pursuit of the car, NOPD Superintendent Sean Ferguson announced the following afternoon that investigators were able to gather additional information that warranted a formal investigation into a possible violation of the department’s pursuit policy. The department’s Public Integrity Bureau will handle the investigation.
As of early Friday morning, the coroner’s office had not released the names of the two people who were inside the car and died at the crash as well as the name of the woman who was a customer at the salon and died from her injuries on Thursday.
The morning following the crash and fire, a man brought a stuffed animal to the scene. Randon Montgomery told WGNO News that one of the people killed in the car was a teenage boy. Montgomery said that he only knew the teen’s nickname, Bam.
“He was a good little dude. He was raised by his grandparents, no mother no father,” Montgomery said. “So you know how that is in a lot of communities. One of the little kids who had extra time on his hands. Had he had a proper role model, someone to spend his time with, things could have ended a little different.”