By Jamie Landers and Kelli Smith
Kansas City Chiefs wide receiver Rashee Rice was driving 119 mph in the seconds before he caused a multivehicle crash that injured at least seven people last month, according to an arrest-warrant affidavit obtained by The Dallas Morning News.
The NFL player faces one count of aggravated assault, one count of collision involving serious bodily injury and six counts of collision involving injury, police said. His attorney did not respond to a request for comment Friday.
Rice, who officials have said admitted to driving one of two high-end sports cars that triggered the six-vehicle crash on March 30, was booked into a DeSoto jail Thursday after he turned himself into Glenn Heights police. He posted bail and was released shortly after.
Kristin Lowman, a Dallas police spokeswoman, has said the drivers of a Chevrolet Corvette and a Lamborghini Urus were speeding about 6:20 p.m. March 30 in the 6600 block of North Central Expressway, between Lovers Lane and University Boulevard, where each lost control.
The cars “made multiple aggressive maneuvers to get through traffic,” the affidavit said.
According to the affidavit, the Urus and the Corvette “both took faulty evasive action” to avoid hitting a sedan and other vehicles but came into contact with each other. The collision with the sedan caused a chain-reaction crash, the affidavit said, which continued to three other vehicles “in a matter of seconds.”
According to crash data cited in the affidavit, the Urus was traveling 119 mph 4.5 seconds before the collision. The Corvette was traveling 116 mph 7.5 seconds before the collision, but had slowed to 91 miles per hour about 1.5 seconds before.
The speed limit is 70 mph on that stretch of highway. Police wrote in the affidavit that the “reckless” driving put “multiple people at risk of loss of life and serious injury.”
Rice and four other men were seen on video leaving the scene after the crash. Police have said the men didn’t stop to see if anyone needed medical attention or provide any of their information.
Rice’s attorney, state Sen. Royce West, D-Dallas, said at a news conference last week that the former Richland High School and SMU star was not trying to run or hide from anyone but didn’t offer any explanation for why his client left the scene.
The suspected driver of the Corvette, SMU cornerback Theodore “Teddy” Knox, turned himself in to Glenn Heights police and was booked into the DeSoto Regional Jail on Friday, officials said. He faces the same eight charges as Rice. His bail was set at $40,000, which he posted about 1:30 p.m., a city of DeSoto spokesperson said. His attorney did not respond to a request for comment Friday.
According to SMU officials, Knox was suspended from the football team after the school learned of his alleged involvement.
The passengers in the sports cars will not face charges, police said.
Rice met with police for the first time four days after the collision, but the affidavit said a representative for Rice called police about setting up an interview about 6:30 p.m. the day after the crash, the affidavit said.
The following day, April 1, Rice’s legal team met with police but told the detective Rice wouldn’t be there.
Rice met with investigators April 3, according to the affidavit. When a detective asked Rice during the interview if two scars above his eye were the result of a crash, Rice said yes and that he hit his head inside the Urus, the affidavit said.
Kayla Quinn — who detailed her experience to The News the day after the crash — suffered injury to her head, neck and back, according to the affidavit. Quinn was with her 4-year-old son, who she said was shaking and crying after the crash.
They were stranded on the highway for about five hours, she told The News. She did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday about the charges police brought against Rice and Knox.
The affidavit detailed other injuries from the victims of the crash, including someone whose head and torso were in pain; a passenger whose head, neck, shoulders, torso, hip and foot were injured; a man whose head and torso were injured and who has pain in his stomach; a woman who had pain in her neck and back; and a 3-year-old passenger who “suffered injury to the stomach area, causing him pain,” the affidavit said.
The affidavit also described a driver who had “serious bodily injury” to her face, head, torso and leg that required multiple stitches to treat. She also had post-concussion symptoms, including headaches, extreme light and sound sensitivity and brain fog.
She’ll be rendered “to a life of limited mobility and sight for an undetermined, extended period of time while she seeks treatment,” the affidavit said.
Marc Lenahan, who has said he’s representing one of the victims, told The News in a written statement Friday that “after a quarter of a century litigating cases of extreme recklessness and utter disregard for human life and health, I did not expect to be surprised by too many of the details as they get released.”
“I was wrong,” he said. “119 mph & 116 mph is completely shocking for that highway on the evening before Easter.”
Staff writer Maggie Prosser contributed to this report.
This story, originally published in The Dallas Morning News, is reprinted as part of a collaborative partnership between The Dallas Morning News and Texas Metro News. The partnership seeks to boost coverage of Dallas’ communities of color, particularly in southern Dallas.
