Tweeted YOLO, Dead The Next Hour
Youthful exhuberance has never done any good
to any youth. No one should lose their heads
just in the name of having fun. Tragedies
happen everywhere though, but it hurts when
it’s a preventable tragedy.
The San Bernardino Sun reports that last week,
five men in their early 20s were killed in
Ontario, California when their 2005 Nissan
Sentra ran a red light, lost control and hit a
fence, before coming to rest in the backyard of a
house. As news of the tragedy spread around
the community, one of the vicitim’s Twitter
accounts caught the attention of investigators.
Ervin McKinness, 21, died in the car crash, which
police say occurred around 1:40AM on
September 3rd (Labour Day), but approximately
twenty minutes before the deadly accident, the
21-year-old sent out a tweet that could have
saved his life if someone had intervened.
“Drunk af going 120 drifting corners #F**kIt
YOLO,” was posted at 1:19 AM Monday on the
McKinness’ Twitter account (@ink2flashyy.)
“ YOLO” is the acronym for “You Only Live
Once.” The four letters are often used on the
social networking site. Drake popularized the
acronym on the track, The Motto. He raps thus,
“You only live once, that’s the motto, ni–a Yolo /
We bout it every day, every day, every day /
Like we sitting on the bench, ni–a we don’t
really play .”
Marquell Bogan, 23, Dylan George, 20, Jonathan
Watson, 21 and JaJuan Bennett, 23, were also
killed in the car accident. McKinness, who sent
out the now-cryptic tweet, was not at the wheel,
as his tweets suggest. Watson was driving
according to police. One final, follow-up tweet
from McKinness a minute later read: “Driving
tweeting sipping the cup f–k yolo I’m turning it
up.” Maybe he was actually at the wheels, but
the last tweet was eventually removed from his
account.
All the victims were pronounced dead on the
scene except one. Bogan was rushed to a
nearby hospital where he was pronounced dead
shortly after 2AM. The investigation is still
underway, but McKinness’ tweets reveal that
alcohol was in charge.
What could have been a day of joy ended in
tears as family and friends of the deceased
revealed that the group were celebrating the
good news that McKinness, an aspiring rapper
that went by the name Jew’elz and Inkky had
signed a record deal. Be careful how you
celebrate success. Think well before you use
those words, YOLO.:
No comments: