A woman was killed after a female suspect stole the car she was riding in and crashed it into a federal building in Washington, DC.
At approximately 12:15 p.m., Leslie Marie Gaines, 55, was finishing up a physical therapy session at MedStar National Rehabilitation Hospital near the Howard University campus in Washington, D.C. When Gaines’ daughter tried to drive her home, Gaines suddenly began experiencing blurred vision and problems with her legs.
“She never harmed anyone. She had no enemies. You won’t find anyone better than her.”
Paramedics Doctors determined Gaines was not having a stroke and that her vital signs were normal, except for a slightly elevated blood sugar level. They suggested they take her to the emergency room entrance. ambulanceHowever, she insisted that her daughter be taken there by car as they were in the same medical facility.
When the daughter arrived at the emergency room entrance, she got out of the car and left the engine running – she later claimed she did so because Gaines was sitting in the car and conscious – then she went into the hospital to find a wheelchair for her mother.
After briefly speaking with the nurse, the daughter turned around to look outside and was shocked to see that her car and mother were gone. She immediately called 911 to report that her car had apparently been stolen.
Shortly after 1:30 p.m., a Metropolitan Police lieutenant who happened to be in the area observed a white SUV speeding and driving erratically down NW 6th Avenue, and later witnessed the SUV crash into the building that houses the local U.S. Attorney’s Office.
The driver of the SUV, later identified as 22-year-old Kayla Kenisha Brown, allegedly attempted to flee on foot but was quickly arrested.
The pilot then noticed a passenger still in the wreckage, a woman later identified as Gaines, who was described as “unconscious” and “unresponsive” at the time. The pilot attempted rescue and eventually transported her to George Washington Hospital, where she was pronounced dead.
Brown was also taken to George Washington Hospital for treatment of injuries she may have sustained in the accident, but it wasn’t her first visit to the hospital that day: Just hours earlier, someone from her home had called 911, pleading for help before the line was cut off.
When officers arrived at the home, Brown’s parents claimed she had been “acting erratically” for three days after meeting a man she met on Instagram, and they believed she had taken “some sort of drug.”
Paramedics examined Brown and found that her heart rate and blood pressure were both too high for someone her age, and at about 12:40 p.m. that day, they transported her to MedStar Washington Hospital Center, the same medical facility where Gaines’ daughter’s car was stolen about 30 minutes later.
Surveillance camera images cited in court documents appear to show Brown, wearing a coffee-colored sweatsuit and yellow Crocs, approaching Gaines’ daughter’s car and then driving away.
Police initially charged Brown with murder, kidnapping and unarmed vehicular robbery, but D.C. Superior Court Judge Heide Hellman dismissed the murder and kidnapping charges, arguing that prosecutors had probable cause to support only the unarmed vehicular robbery charge.
Prosecutors argued that kidnapping and murder charges against Brown would be presented to a grand jury.
“The trial is a very difficult one,” Brown’s attorney, Sylvia Smith, said Friday during a hearing before another D.C. judge. Judge Lenny RaymondShe argued that her client clearly did not abuse the car because it was left with the engine running, and that the cause of Gaines’ death is currently unknown and that he may have been dead before the accident.
Judge Raymond ordered Brown held without bail, arguing that Brown’s “conduct demonstrates a pattern of dangerous behavior.”
Meanwhile, Gaines’ family is devastated by the sudden loss.
“She would take off her clothes if she needed to, she would bring you food from the kitchen, she had three daughters who loved her to death,” Erica Gaines said of her late sister, Leslie Marie. “She never harmed anybody. She had no enemies.”
“You couldn’t find anyone better.”
Like Blaze News? Bypass the censorship and sign up for our newsletter to get stories like this one directly to your inbox. Register here!
