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Family speaks out on death of Summer Taylor, victim in I-5 car incident
The family mourns the loss of child, Summer Taylor. They were killed when a car hit them on I-5 while protesting last week.
SEATTLE - A man has pleaded guilty to causing the death of one person and severely injuring another when he drove on a closed highway during Black Lives Matter protests in 2020.
On July 4, 2020, video posted to social media showed a white car racing toward a group of people protesting on a closed-off portion of Interstate-5. One of the people hit was filming the protest in a nearly two-hour-long Facebook livestream captioned "Black Femme March takes I-5" when the video ended abruptly; with about 15 seconds left, shouts of "Car!" can be heard as the camera starts to shake before screeching tires and the sound of impact are heard.
Washington State Patrol said they had closed off that portion of the interstate for more than an hour before the crash.
Troopers said the driver, identified as 30-year-old Dawit Kelete, drove the wrong way on a ramp to get on the interstate and went through a barrier that had blocked the freeway.
Kelete then hit two protesters-- then 24-year-old Summer Taylor and 32-year-old Diaz Love. Both victims were taken to Harborview Medical Center. Taylor then died from their injuries. Love has since been released from the hospital.
Kelete was arrested shortly after the crash.
Three years after the crash, he pleaded guilty to vehicular homicide, vehicular assault with aggravating substantial injuries to the victim and reckless driving.
Prosecutors are asking the judge to impose an "exceptional sentence" of six and a half years due to the nature of the crime. The usual range of punishment is a year to a year and a half.
His sentencing hearing is scheduled for 10:30 a.m. on Sept. 8 in the King County Courthouse.