SC native dies and driver arrested on DUI manslaughter charge after Florida crash
A college student from Columbia has died and a driver is charged in her death, days after what authorities say was a hit-and-run.
“My Sweet Angel has gone to Heaven,” Mike Harrell said Friday evening in a Facebook post that included a photo of his daughter, London Harrell.
The 21-year-old was fatally injured June 22, when the Florida Highway Patrol says she was struck by a vehicle driven by Yousuf Hasan while she was walking near her campus at the University of Central Florida, the State reported.
News of her death was shared on social media shortly after a vigil was held Friday in the rising senior’s name, according to WIS.
“God called London home,” her mother posted on Facebook, along with pictures. “She is no longer in pain and her bright light will shine in heaven — reminding us that doing for others should always be a priority.”
While a vigil was held for Harrell in Blythewood, her sorority on the Orlando campus also held an event for the Spring Valley High School alum, WLTX reported.
The Highway Patrol said Harrell was “walking well into the grass lawn” when she was hit by Hasan’s car last week, per WOFL.
The 25-year-old did not stop and was found “sleeping on the ground behind his car in a parking lot,” WKMG reported.
There was damage to the windshield of his car where blood was found, along with hair that matched Harrell’s color, according to Knight News.
Although his Breathalyzer test result was .000, the Highway Patrol said Hasan “had bloodshot, glassy eyes, slurred speech and was stumbling” after failing a field sobriety test, per WFTV.
Results from a blood test are pending, WOFL reported.
In spite of pleas from Harrell’s father, a judge released Hasan on $11,500 bond because his charges were “neither capital offenses nor ... punishable by life in prison,” according to WKMG.
Hasan was originally charged with DUI resulting in serious bodily harm and leaving the scene of an accident.
Friday, authorities arrested Hasan again and upgraded the DUI-with-injury charge to vehicular homicide, manslaughter while driving under the influence, and causing a collision that involved death, according to court records. He is awaiting a bond hearing, detention center records show.
Hitting Harrell is not the only collision Hasan is accused of being involved in near the Orlando campus that night.
The Highway Patrol said minutes before Harrell was hit, Hasan’s car lost its front bumper after he crashed into another car and drove away, Knight News reported.
This story was originally published June 29, 2019 at 1:24 AM.
