‘I ran for my life’: Bystander attempted to save victims after car crashed into apartment

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — One UNCW student is speaking out after he witnessed a fatal crash that killed Kelly Prince at the Hawthorne Apartments on Saturday, December 4.

Luke Brooks, a UNCW junior, says he was walking home with a friend down Tarheel Drive when they heard a loud car peeling through the neighborhood.

The pair literally ran for their lives,  jumping off the road and into some bushes as the car sped past. Brooks says he and his friend watched as the car sped through a stop sign, caught air jumping over a curb, and slammed into a first story apartment.

Walter Wade Ange, 23, was arrested later in the week and charged with felony hit and run resulting in death, felony hit and run resulting in serious injury, reckless driving to endanger, and a stop sign violation.

Brooks says — from what he saw — the driver was allegedly driving erratically through the neighborhood. When the driver realized what happened — Brooks says — they got out of the car from the passenger side door and ran from the scene.

Brooks says his friend called 911 as he ran into the apartment and removed a door crushing Prince, scrambling until an ambulance arrived.

“The lady was crying for her inhaler,” Brooks says. “I was looking, just through all the debris and shrapnel from the crash. I couldn’t find it in the moment with my iPhone flashlight.”

Brooks says he used his shirt to try and stop the bleeding from Prince’s head, but Prince ended up dying from her injuries.

“That kind of bums me out,” Brooks says. “I don’t know if that could have made a difference.”