Drag racer kills woman crossing the street in Chicago during illegal street ‘take over’ event
Shawman Mereis, 40, from Naples, Florida, was killed by suspected drag racers speeding in their Corvettes through Chicago in the early hours of Sunday morning
A 40-year-old tourist visiting Chicago with her boyfriend was killed in the early hours of Sunday as a pair of Corvettes believed to be drag racing spun out of control and plowed into her on a crosswalk.
Shawman Meireis, a business consultant from Naples, Florida, was walking to a late dinner after a music festival at 1:40am when the red Corvette smashed into her.
Mereis’ boyfriend, Eric Eanone, grabbed the 27-year-old driver of the car after it spun to a stop, flung him against a lamp post, and yelled at him: ‘You killed my girlfriend,’ witnesses told The Chicago Sun-Times.
The driver and a 19-year-old woman in a blue Corvette had been seen revving their engines at a stop light, before hitting the gas and speeding down Cicero Avenue, near Midway Airport.
Police and witnesses said the two cars were cutting across lanes to block each other, weaving through traffic until the red Corvette hit Meireis.
The blue Corvette sped off, leaving Meireis fighting for her life. She was pronounced dead in hospital.
A crowd of onlookers watch and film as drivers perform ‘doughnuts’ in Chicago at the weekend
Passengers leant out the windows and sat on doors as the cars were spun at speed
Meireis, a business consultant, was visiting Chicago with her boyfriend when she was killed
Meireis is pictured with boyfriend Eric Eanone, who she was visiting Chicago with at the time
Meireis and Eanone are pictured together in July 2017
The incident was one of many illegal street ‘take overs’ to be reported in Chicago at the weekend.
Streets across the city were blocked by large groups filming drivers performing ‘doughnuts’, sometimes with passengers hanging out the windows.
Other onlookers got close to the swerving cars, jumping on the hood and leaning in to film.
Videos shared on social media also showed large crowds of people gathered in the heart of downtown, at the intersections in the trendy West Loop and restaurant-filled South Loop districts.
There were also drag racing and drifting events in East Pilsen, Downtown and the Near West Side, police said.
Nine people were arrested, seven cars were impounded cars and six police cars were damaged after participants threw fireworks, bricks, and rocks at officers.
Cars are seen performing ‘doughnuts’ in Chicago over the weekend
Meireis’ death came as, in Los Angeles, locals living in a neighborhood featured in the Fast and Furious movies held protests against the filming of the franchise’s latest installment, claiming the community has been blighted by a spate of illegal and dangerous street racing.
Residents voiced anger at this weekend’s planned taping of Fast X in Angelino Heights, a historic area near downtown Los Angeles which is home to Vin Diesel’s fictional character Dominic Toretto in the wildly popular, long-running film series.
The movies depict the underground world of street racing, helping to popularize practices such as ‘street takeovers’ in which crowds gather — usually at night — to watch cars rev their engines and screech at high speeds around city streets.
Local residents and supporters of the group Street Racing Kills protested the increase in street racing takeovers and the latest Fast and Furious movie being filmed
Local activists and residents gathered to protest the filming of the new Fast and Furious X movie
Some fans of the franchise have evidently gone to the neighborhood and engaged in unsafe car maneuvers such as donuts or burnouts
A shot of the Fast X movie which is the 10th installment of the Fast And The Furious franchise
Protestors in the neighborhood gathered in the street Friday to express their objections to the film for glamorizing street racing
The protestors say the community has been blighted by a spate of illegal and dangerous street racing
Residents say it glamorizes street racing and illegal takeovers, fueling a dangerous trend anywhere the films have resonated with young drivers
Residents say the films’ distributor, Universal Pictures, and the city of LA have done little to deter the copycat drivers who race through their neighborhood
A photo from one of the Fast And The Furious films
Damian Kevitt, a local resident and founder of Streets Are For Everyone (SAFE), said the Hollywood film series ‘glorifies an illegal activity’ and as a result Angelino Heights had become ‘a tourist destination for illegal street racing.’
‘Friday, Saturday, Sunday nights, there’ll be three, four, five, six cars coming through here, doing burnouts, doing doughnuts,’ said Kevitt.
‘There was not street racing in this community before ‘Fast and Furious’ was filmed here,’ he added.
Bella, another resident who declined to give her last name, said her children were traumatized from being constantly awoken by the sound of cars outside her home at night, and were now too scared to play outside the house.
‘They’ve seen when the car spins out of control and practically hits the pedestrian that’s standing right on the corner,’ she said.
Paul Walker is seen in a 2001 Fast and Furious film
Neighbors would like streets to be redesigned in order to discourage street racing
Angelino Heights residents and others protest the filming of ‘Fast and Furious X’ with concerns that the series has increased street racing and danger in the neighborhood in Los Angeles
Local residents have asked the film’s producers to make a public service announcement to discourage amateurs from speeding down residential streets. Picture above: filming
Lili Trujillo Puckett, founder of Street Racing Kills, speaks alongside local residents and supporters of the group Street Racing Kills during a protest on the increase in street racing
Street racing in LA predates the film franchise which first began in 2001 but many feel that the movies are contributing to the problem
Los Angeles has seen a 30 percent increase in fatalities and a 21 percent increase in serious injuries due to traffic violence over the last year, according to the Los Angeles Police Department.
Bella called for Universal Pictures to move future filming elsewhere, while SAFE has asked the city to install speed humps and implement a zero-tolerance policy on street racing.
The group has also asked Universal to add a disclaimer to the Fast and Furious movies discouraging street racing.
The studio has not responded to a request for comment.
The first installment, The Fast and the Furious,’was released by Universal Pictures in 2001, and the franchise has become the eighth-highest grossing film series in history, taking over $6.6 billion worldwide across ten movies.
Fast X is due to be released next May.
