An 18-year-old driver who struck a vehicle Tuesday night leaving an 78-year-old woman dead, and six of her relatives injured was charged Thursday morning with reckless homicide, Chicago police said.
Kurell Oakley of the West Ridge neighborhood was charged with reckless homicide and three counts of aggravated reckless driving causing bodily harm. He also was cited for failure of right of way at an intersection, police said.
Oakley was arrested Tuesday around 10:45 p.m. at Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center where he went for pain to his back and neck. Hours earlier, Oakley failed to yield to a 2023 Kia Sorento headed south in an intersection at Peterson and Kimball avenues in the North Park neighborhood, police said.
His Saturn sedan broadsided a Kia SUV carrying seven people from Highland, Indiana that was headed east on Peterson Avenue.
The Saturn struck the Kia on its driver’s side, flipping it “upside down,” authorities said. Oakley told police officers that his brakes had failed, according to a police report.
Zainab Suboh, 78, who was a passenger in the Kia, was taken to St. Francis Hospital in Evanston were she was pronounced dead at 8:40 p.m. according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office and police. Six of her relatives, including two children, also were injured, police said.
Oakley is scheduled to appear Thursday at a bail hearing.
