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Upper Marlboro resident Darteal Byers, 17, is the fourth victim to be named in the crash that also took the lives of driver Marquay Swann, 14, of Lanham, 15-year-old Zyshaun Cuffey, of Glenarden, and Upper Marlboro native Serenity Sellman, 15, the Medical Examiner's Office confirmed.
Officers were called around 7:30 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 29 to the intersection of Lottsford Road and Palmetto Drive in Mitchellville, where there was a Kia Sorrento that crashed and was fully engulfed in flames after Swann lost control and hit a tree during a police pursuit.
Investigators say that they spotted the Kia with expired temporary tags, and when officers attempted to conduct a traffic stop, the driver sped off before they lost sight and called off the pursuit.
They were unable to track down the joyriders until witnesses reported minutes later that a reckless driver was speeding in the 12800 block of Woodmore Road as they attempted to pass on the shoulder of the roadway, lost control, and crashed into a tree.
The crash was less than three miles from the site of the initial traffic stop. It was later determined that the Kia was stolen and the subject of an armed carjacking in Greenbelt earlier that day.
It remains under investigation.
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