The 15-year-old driver killed in a high-speed crash in Kendall has been identified as the 14-year-old passenger who was in the car continued to fight for her life Thursday.
Anthony Jayden Gago was killed in the Wednesday morning crash, a family representative said Thursday in a statement.
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"Anthony was a bright and compassionate young man who will be sorely missed," the brief statement read. "The Gago and Betancourt families are devastated and reeling from his passing."
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Gago was behind the wheel of an Audi that slammed into a concrete pillar at the Florida's Turnpike overpass in the area of Southwest 56th Street and Southwest 117th Avenue around 3 a.m. Wednesday.
Miami-Dade Police said an officer had spotted the speeding Audi and turned on their emergency equipment to try to stop it when it crashed into the pillar, killing the 15-year-old at the scene.
Footage from the crash scene showed the badly damaged car on its side under the overpass, with car parts scattered across the roadway. What appeared to be the car's engine was also in the middle of the road several feet away from the car.
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The car's passenger, identified by a family attorney as 14-year-old Jazmin Keltz, was hospitalized in critical condition and was fighting for her life, police said.
"A beautiful young lady, very lively, very intelligent, always asks questions, always wanting to know things," attorney Michael Feiler said. "She was kind of in the prime of her life and just sort of finding out where she wanted to go and what she wanted to do."
On Thursday night, loved ones gathered at the crash site to light candles and pray for the teens.
Students at Ferguson Senior High School, where Gago attended, said they knew him as AJ.
"AJ was very nice to everybody. He used to always help me when I needed help in school or any homework. He would always help me," one student said Thursday morning. "I can’t believe this happened. I miss him so much. Yesterday, in class, he sits in front of me and it was too hard to handle so my teacher let me go out for a little bit."
"I didn’t believe it. I texted him and everything, like please don’t tell me this is true," another student said.
Friends said Keltz also is a student at Ferguson.
"It’s just such a sad tragedy because this is the stuff that your parents warn you about. Just to see another life lost is really heartbreaking," said junior Emily Fletes.
The crash is still under investigation. Miami-Dade Police said detectives are looking into whether the 15-year-old had a driver's permit and said it appears the car involved belongs to the 15-year-old's mother but she apparently didn't know he had taken it.
