9-Year-Old's Joyride Ends With 2 Kids Dead

On Friday night, 9-year-old Ty'Jun Thigpen got hold of his mom's car keys and climbed into her Mercury in Scott County, Miss., along with three other children. The joyride ended in tragedy when Ty'Jun noticed the blue lights of a Mississippi Highway Patrol safety checkpoint along a rural road and tried to avoid it, WLBT reports. A trooper noticed and attempted to stop the Mercury, but as he caught up to it, the car ran off the road and into a light pole. It was snapped in two, and Braydon Traxler, 3, and Justin Harrell, 13, died after being thrown from the car. Justin's twin sister, Breckon, was treated for minor injuries and released; Ty'Jun is still hospitalized in critical condition.

"One of the officers from Mississippi Highway Patrol attempted to make contact with the vehicle, catch up to the vehicle and stop the vehicle to see what the reason was for eluding the check point," says a sergeant. "In the course of him catching up to the vehicle the vehicle ran off the road and overturned. Unfortunately two children lost their lives as a result of the accident." The MHP is investigating; no charges have been filed, WTOK reports, but the possibility has not been ruled out. "Everybody is hurt by this," says a neighbor. (In a similarly tragic story, a 6-year-old died when her 8-year-old brother crashed their mom's car.)