NEW ORLEANS — An attempted traffic stop led to a deadly crash and fire at a longtime beauty salon in the Broadmoor neighborhood.
Two teenagers in what New Orleans police believed was a stolen car died in the crash and 7 others were injured.
Patricia Robinson said she knew the teens.
"I seen them grow up around here, you know, being around with other kids, walking through the neighborhood," Robinson said. The wasn't no bad kids. They go to school with my grand kids."
Randon Montgomery knew one of the boys.
He brought a stuffed animal to the scene.
"Seeing him on a day to day basis, he wasn't selling no drugs or robbing nobody or killing nobody out here or nothing like that," Montgomery said.
According to police, officers tried to pull over the teenagers near Toledano and Derbigny around 8:30, Wednesday night.
Their car matched the description of a vehicle that was reported stolen.
The vehicle did not stop when police deployed their lights and instead sped up.
NOPD Superintendent Shaun Ferguson said at some point, police broke off the pursuit.
A short time later the vehicle hit an SUV near Washington and South White, burst into flames and skidded into Unity-1 hair salon.
Montgomery claims he was walking down Toledano Street when he saw the police activity.
"From my point of view, where I was standing, in front, I didn't see no falling back of the officers," Montgomery said. "I didn't see no disengaging, I didn't see that."
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Robinson called the whole ordeal very sad.
"I don't understand why police couldn't back down or have somebody to head them off," Robinson said.
Robinson added the teens should have stopped the car when police tried to pull them over.
The NOPD Public Integrity Bureau's Force Investigation team is assisting in this active investigation.