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Taylor Hill, 19, and Kamal Johnson, 18 -- both of Newark and former dance majors at Arts High School -- were passengers in a Cadillac sedan that crashed in the eastbound lanes of Route 22 Tuesday around 11:10 p.m., Acting Essex County Prosecutor Theodore N. Stephens, II, and Newark Public Safety Director Anthony F. Ambrose said. They were pronounced dead at the scene.
Nashawn Brooks, 20, of Irvington, was transported to University Hospital and pronounced pronounced dead just before noon Wednesday, Stephens and Ambrose said. Brooks was a former standout Irvington High School athlete who last year played football at Wagner. Brooks is being remembered as a go-getter and dream-chaser.
Gov. Phil Murphy said the five were coming back from a pop-up party on Point Pleasant Beach that brought police from surrounding towns to control crowds.
Videos posted to social media by Hill moments before the wreck show her and her friends singing in the back seat of a car and dancing. Daily Voice is withholding the videos out of respect for the families.
Johnson reposted a series of photos that Hill shared on Instagram that day saying: "My best so beautiful," with heart-eye emojis. Johnson also reposted an image shared by another critically-injured victim.
Two other unidentified females in the car including the 19-year-old driver remain hospitalized in critical condition, authorities said.
The driver apparently lost control of the vehicle, which crashed and burst into flames in the eastbound lanes near the Hillside border, responders said.
The Essex County Prosecutor’s Office was investigating.
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