A Texas teenager has been charged with multiple counts of manslaughter in connection with a December car crash that killed a family of six, according to reports.
On Dec. 26, Johnson County police said that around 4 p.m. local time, 17-year-old Luke Resecker was allegedly driving his 2014 Chevy Silverado southbound on U.S. Highway 67 near County Road 1119 in a no-passing zone, according to CBS News Texas. The teenager allegedly entered the northbound lane and then crashed head-on into an oncoming Honda Odyssey, killing six of the seven occupants.
According to local Atlanta affiliate WSB-TV, Resecker is now charged with six counts of intoxicated manslaughter, two counts of intoxicated assault, possession of a controlled substance, Class 2 and possession of marijuana.
Officials with the Texas Department of Public Safety said, according to WSB-TV , that his bail was set at $50,000 and he is being restricted to supervised home detention pending his next court appearance.
Luke Resecker.
Texas DPS
On the day of the crash, officers arrived at the scene and took Resecker, along with a 17-year-old passenger in his truck, to the hospital, listing both in critical condition, WSB-TV reported.
According to NBC DFW, Resecker was deemed unfit to be housed in the Johnson County Jail due to his medical condition.
CBS News Texas reported that the six killed in the crash were 28-year-old Rushil Barri of Irving, Texas; Naveena Potabathula, 36, her parents Nageswararao Ponnada, 64, and Sitamahalakshmi Ponnada, 60, and her children Krithik Potabathula, 10, and Nishidha Potabathula, 9, all of Alpharetta, Ga.
Lokesh Potabathula — the 43-year-old cousin of Barri and husband and father of Naveena, Krithik and Nishidha — was the sole survivor of the accident and is now in a critical condition, the paper said.
A family friend who spoke to CBS News Texas said the group was headed home after a day at the Fossil Rim Wildlife Center after Christmas, and were on their way home at the time of the crash.
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“We played with them, we had a good dinner, we had a good Christmas party and we got a call that they were gone,” Ayyappala Bandaru, Barri’s friend and roommate, said in an interview. “How can we even digest that?”
“In the blink of an eye, his family disappeared,” he added.
According to Bandaru, Potabathula is still in a critical condition and is not yet aware that his family has died. Friends and family are now working to return the bodies to India, their homeland, he added.
A GoFundMe has been started to pay for the family’s medical and funeral expenses. It has raised more than $400,000 of its $500,000 goal as of Friday night.
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