Over 100 people gathered on Forest Park Avenue for a memorial and balloon release Wednesday, March 1 to honor the lives of three teens and one young adult who were victims of a hit-and-run. 

Anthony Robinson, 19, Richard Boyd, 19, Corntrail McKinley, 20, and Bryanna Dentman-Johnson, 18, were killed early Sunday morning when a driver ran a red light and smashed into the SUV, sending it above a guardrail onto Forest Park Avenue below the Grand overpass. Four others in the car survived the crash and were taken to the hospital. 

At the memorial, family members shared about the victims’ lives, prayed and mourned together. Monuella Murry, whose son was Richard Boyd’s best friend of 10 years said he was like a son to her.

 “We should not be burying our children,”Murray said through tears. 

Cedric E. Dixon, 34, turned himself in to the police Wednesday, March 1. He has multiple driving violations and four revoked licenses. He has been charged with four counts of involuntary manslaughter, four counts of assault, eight counts of armed criminal action and leaving the scene of an accident resulting in death. 

One of the of the victims’ mothers said at the memorial that police treated the victims like suspects and claimed that it took approximately five hours until the coroner took the victims’ bodies away while they searched the vehicle.  

Courtney McKinley, who survived the crash, told the St. Louis Post Dispatch that first responders took too long to remove his brother and the others trapped in the flipped car.

“This intersection is not safe for anyone, not even the SLU kids who walk here. Enough is enough,” Murray said.

The Grand and Forest Parkway intersection in Midtown is one of the top 10 crash locations in St. Louis city. A bill signed by Mayor Tishaura Jones on Wednesday would invest $40 million in street and pedestrian safety through infrastructure projects across the city, where 78 people were killed by traffic violence in 2022.