Angela Meeks gazed in horror at the motionless body of her 25-year-old daughter Keyana Meeks after she was hit by a SUV driven by her younger sister early Tuesday.
“She was just laying there. I thought I saw her move,” said Angela, 51. “I hoped she’d be OK, prayed she’d be OK, because I didn’t see any blood.”
The mother added her family is in shock and disbelief over the deadly crash, which unfolded outside their home in the 1300 block of South Lawndale Avenue about 4:15 a .m.
Meanwhile, guilt has taken hold of Keyana’s 21-year-old sister, who police said was arrested and released without charges.
“She’s not doing too well,” Angela said of Keyana’s sister. “She’s said she wanted to die herself. She has support. She’s being monitored closely. We tell her don’t blame herself.”
Keyana and her sister “loved each other,” said their 29-year-old cousin, Dajonne Jordan. “You wouldn’t see one without the other. They had a very strong bond.”
Keyana was on foot as her sister, behind the wheel of an Acura SUV, was driving through an alley off Lawndale Avenue and made a left turn onto 13th Street, and slammed into a fence, according to police reports.
The collision caused the SUV to flip three times before landing on top of Keyana, according to relatives and traffic reports.
The sisters were taken to Mount Sinai Hospital, where Keyana was pronounced dead at 4:52 a.m. and her sister was treated for a leg injury, officials said.
Police are continuing to investigate the cause of the crash.
Keyana was protective of her three young children — including her autistic son — ages 6, 4 and 2, family members said. A GoFundMe page was launched to help support the family.
Keyana also had deep relationships with of other family members.
“She did whatever she thought was necessary in order to have a good life for her and her kids,” said Eddie Meeks III, her uncle. “She was strong-willed and could really do just about anything.”
Keyana was a hair stylist who loved decorating for family parties.
She also had dreams of buying and flipping homes, family members said. She also shared with her mother that she was considering converting to Islam to grow closer to God.
At about 6-foot-2, she “had a dominance about her,” her uncle said.
“She could have probably gone somewhere [in] professional boxing,” he said. “She was not the type of girl you really wanted to mess with, and she wasn’t just gonna let you get away with anything.”
But Keyana showed a softer side around family members, he added.
“When you really got to know her, it felt like [she] was a big teddy bear,” her uncle said with a chuckle. “She was trying to navigate life, trying to survive. That’s how she lived her life.”