Many questions remain unanswered following a deadly crash over the weekend that took the lives of three young soccer players in North Miami, as a new report said the driver involved had a suspended license and smelled of alcohol.
The teens, 17-year-old Richecarde Dumay, 15-year-old Lens Desir, and 13-year-old Gedeon Desir, were waiting for a bus to take them to a soccer tournament in Weston when they were struck by a car at a bus stop in the area of Northeast 125th Street and 13th Avenue around 5:20 a.m. Saturday.
Friends and family members gathered at the site Monday, where a memorial with balloons, flowers and candles was set up to honor the three members of the Little Haiti Football Club.
"I'm still trying to find words to express, which is very difficult for me," said Jean Desir, the father of Lens Desir.
The driver involved in the crash was identified as Mariam Coulibaly, who was arrested Tuesday night and faces three counts of DUI manslaughter and three counts of vehicular homicide, North Miami police said. She remains at Aventura Hospital under police guard and is expected to be booked into jail.
A Miami Herald report says Coulibaly is a 31-year-old exotic dancer with a suspended license.
The NBC 6 Investigators found Coulibaly has a troubling driving record: she was ticketed for leaving the scene of an accident, going 77 mph in a 35 mph zone, and was involved in four crashes between 2013 and 2015. Her license was first suspended in Broward County back in 2017 for not paying fines. It was suspended a second time in Miami-Dade County the next year for the same reason.
Both suspensions were indefinite, the NBC 6 Investigators found, meaning she should not have been behind the wheel.
The Herald report said sources told them the driver smelled of alcohol at the scene and told medical staff she had been partying all night. Detectives got a search warrant for her blood, which had a blood alcohol level of .15 about four hours after the crash, the Herald reported.
"There is no such thing as a DUI accident. Every DUI incident is a crime, an act undertaken by an individual who could have chosen not to drink and drive but instead decided to start the car and go," Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle said in a statement Wednesday. "The results are always terrible as the loss of these 3 fine young men so vividly displays."
Meanwhile, teammates and friends said they're still seeking solace.
"At first when I first hear it, it hurt so bad I couldn't even cry. I was just thinking 'man, is this really happening?' I was talking to them at 4, and then they were dead and I didn't know nothing," teammate Delidson Joseph said on Monday. "Now without them Iām feeling lost or anxious. Iām just gonna rely on my team now."
"It really hurt me. I can't tell you guys. I have three days I don't eat nothing, I only drink. It's really sad," friend Nineline Dumezile said.
The three teens were on their way to being the first in their families to attend college. Now, funeral arrangements are being made so family and friends can say their last goodbyes.
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"We need to know who was involved, we need to know who is involved," said Gomez Laleau, with the Little Haiti Football Club.
