BAYTOWN, Texas — Students at Sterling High School will start the week with heavy hearts after a classmate was killed in a crash over the weekend.
Mourners wearing yellow shirts gathered outside the school in the early morning hours to hold a memorial service for Shawn Williams, 16. Friends said yellow was the teen's favorite color.
Williams died and another teen was hospitalized in what police said was a shoplifting case that turned into a car chase. The two teens were innocent bystanders caught in the middle of the chaos.
Police said a couple trying to get away with a stolen comforter and pillows was speeding through the intersection at Garth Road and Rollingbrook. Their pick-up first smashed into another truck, then the teens’ car, causing it to burst into flames.
Williams died at the scene. Life Flight took 17-year-old Shay Hollinghead away in critical condition.
Williams sang solos in Sterling High’s elite choir, and by the look of things along Garth Road on Saturday, he touched a lot of hearts in Baytown.
“He was always nice to everybody, complimenting all the girls, complimenting everybody, saying, ‘Oh, you really nice today.’ He’d mess around a lot, make people smile,” said Forest Hayes.
Friends are building a growing memorial at the crash site to ease one another’s pain.
Two more vigils were planned Monday for Williams, including one at the crash site.
