DPD: Man killed from airborne crash into party store was hit by drunk driver

DETROIT (FOX 2) - Police say a speeding driver in a Dodge Charger hit another car and went airborne before crashing into a party store entrance.

Julius Burks says it still feels like his son 19-year-old Tayveon Jackson-Mathews will pull up at home any moment.

"Young 19 year-old kid, Dodge Charger, hard-working," said Burks, describing his son. "It’s gonna be hard to limit and tell the person don’t do. Hey man, I did this, I'm going to live life. I hate it that he did it that way."

But his mind has been all over the place ever since learning Tayveon and a woman around his age were both killed when his Dodge Charger slammed into a liquor store. It happened on Gratiot near Harper on Detroit’s east side late Sunday night.

"Great kid if you got to know him. You’d sit back and you’d find him very funny and unique. He had his own little style. He’d do some little quirky things."

Detroit police say the driver of a BMW pulled out in front of Jackson-Matthews' Charger - prompting it to swerve into the store.

"In no way, shape, or form am I trying to paint the picture to say my child was an angel. He was a young man who was loving life. And it’s sad to say that he got caught up in the moment of living life."

Witnesses were left in total shock.

"I was sitting in the car, and it happened so fast," wtiness Jasmin Martin said. "The car came speeding and flew over my car. Hit my car."

Another witness named Ray saw the car go airborne.

"It looked like the car just flew through the air and split in half and people were in the car as it flew into the store. It’s just a terrible thing," he said.

Police say a third woman in her late teens was also in the car and survived. She’s in the hospital now.

Tayveon’s dad says it’s hard to fathom how things could turn so tragic since his son was just celebrating the purchase of the Charger during a family dinner right before the crash.

He had been working hard on a factory job while delivering for Uber Eats.

"He went out with some friends and I guess the situation from there just turned for the worst," he said.

Detroit Police Deputy Chief Kari Sloan spoke about the tragic crash.

"It’s a terrible situation," she said. "The vehicle was traveling way too fast and the driver of the BMW (the car that hit him) was intoxicated, so we know that those two things combined is very deadly."

Burks says there is a painful lesson in all of this.

"But hopefully from my family’s pain and torment, we can all learn from this not just as a family but as a community," he said. "We can all come together from this possibly get the younger generation to see sometimes it’s best to drive slow, just slow down."