Background: Emergency crews respond after a vehicle crashes into Shannondale Assisted Living Facility in Knoxville, Tennessee (Knoxville Police Department). Inset: Eleasah Williams (Knox County Sheriff’s Office)
A Tennessee woman killed a patient at an assisted living facility in Knoxville when she drove her minivan into the building, police say.
Eleasah Williams, 24, was arrested on Saturday afternoon and has been charged with vehicular homicide with recklessness. She was booked into the Knox County Jail on a $75,000 bond.
The crash happened in the early morning hours on Saturday. The Knoxville Police Department said that at approximately 5:15 a.m., officers responded to Shannondale Assisted Living Facility at 7350 Middlebrook Pike due to reports of a crash. The vehicle had “crashed completely into the room, striking and killing the occupant,” later identified as 96-year-old Walter Humphrey, police said.
A photo of the crash shows the entirety of the minivan inside the building, having shattered the brick wall and dislodged anything else in its way. There were no skid marks on the surrounding grass, indicating the vehicle may have flown through the air before landing on the wall.
The driver, alleged to be Williams, was removed from the vehicle and brought to a nearby hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, according to authorities. After being released, she was booked into the county jail.
Court records reveal the harrowing moments leading up to the crash.
Police were initially called from an apartment complex about a domestic disturbance — someone had called saying Williams was “suicidal and homicidal” and “wanted to kill herself and others,” according to records reviewed by local outlet WBIR.
Williams later admitted to taking several prescription medications and smoking a THC vape before driving at an illegally high speed, attempting to commit suicide, the records reportedly added. Police said it appeared the driver sped from an apartment complex on Woodview Lane across four lanes of Middlebrook Pike straight into one of the assisted living facility’s bedrooms.
Community members were left stunned by Humphrey’s death.
“We hate it for our neighbors and for our friends across the street at Shannondale. We love all of those folks,” Troy Forrester, the lead pastor at Middlebrook Pike United Methodist, told Knoxville-based WVLT. “Our prayers are extended to him, his family, and all of the residents of that area that were affected by this tragedy.”
Another citizen who lives in the area told the outlet Humphrey’s death was “tragic,” calling it a “very hard hit for the family that had the person there being cared for.”
