After being stabilized at the hospital Chandler was arrested and charged with three (3) counts of second-degree murder, three (3) counts of felony death by motor vehicle one (1) count of felony serious injury by motor vehicle, as well as lesser charges for DWI,careless and reckless driving and possession of alcohol by a person under the age of 21. On Tuesday, July 28th, 2015 Chandler was released from jail on house arrest and $1,000,000.00 bond .
Per Highway Patrol reports the accident (if you can call it an “accident”) occurred as Chandler was drunkenly traveling in the wrong direction on Interstate 85 at around 3:00 am on July 19th and crashed his Jeep Wrangler into a Suzuki which had four (4) occupants. Passing motorists who witnessed the crash and called 911 recounted how both vehicles became engulfed in a massive fireball. “There’s a big car accident with a car traveling on the other side of the road. They smashed into each other and it blew up the car,” one (1) witness reportedly told a 911 dispatcher.
Killed in the crash were 49 y/o Felicia Harris, 46 y/o Darlene McGee, both of Charlotte, NoCar, and Harris’ 6 y/o old granddaughter Janiece Smith, of Brooklyn, New York (all pictured – in order – below).
In addition Harris’ youngest daughter, 9 y/o Jahnia King, suffered serious injuries, as did Chandler himself, who suffered a broken ankle, broken foot and a broken arm in the crash. He was brought into the courtroom for his bond hearing in a wheelchair.
While Chandler’s family has said in a statement that their prayers are with the victims and their families, the victims’ families apparently don’t share the same sentiment. Darlene McGee’s sister, Connie, called Chandler “a selfish young man” for making the fateful decision to drink and drive, stating that “he had his whole life ahead of him, but he chose to drive drunk”.
Adding insult to injury (literally) Connie McGee stated that her eldest sister, Harris, and the two girls, aged 6 and 9, were driving home from an annual memorial service in Virginia for McGee’s mother when the crash happened. Apparently the women had in their car an urn containing the ashes of Darlene and Connie’s mother, and the family are now hoping to recover some of the cremains from the charred Suzuki.
Memo to the Folks: Wow. This is truly as bad as it gets. Chandler graduated from High School in 2013 where he was student body president, played soccer and tennis and swam for his school. He was reportedly “a rising college junior”, being a student body board member with a mentoring program on campus and now he has to live with taking three (3) innocent lives, shattering uncounted others, is locked down with an ankle monitor and faces 65 years in prison. And all of this is because he made a bad alcohol fueled decision.