TAMPA, Fla. — Collin Pierce had just gotten engaged to Christina Maria Richards on Wednesday. The couple traveled from Columbus, Ohio, to Tampa with friends to celebrate their engagement when tragedy struck at East 7th Avenue and North 15th Street at 12:47 a.m. Friday.
"He just got engaged on Wednesday, and they were out celebrating with their friends and that happened," Pierce said, standing near the crash site. "We've just tried to get him home so we can get her home and put her to rest with her family."
WATCH: Ohio woman killed in Ybor City crash just days after engagement as families fight for victims' belongings
Richards, 25, was one of four people killed when 21-year-old Silas Kenneth Sampson's silver Toyota Camry crashed into the sidewalk outside popular restaurants, according to police. The others killed were Lisa Sherell Johnson, 40, of Winter Haven; Sherman Jones, 53, of Tampa; and Marlon Anthony Collins, 52, of Bartow. At least 13 people were injured.
But Pierce said the family's grief has been compounded by their inability to retrieve Richards' personal belongings from authorities.
"They told us that we could get her purse and her cell phone and everything this morning because it was locked up in evidence, just for secure reasons," Pierce said. "We went to get her today. They won't give us any of her belongings, her phone, nothing. We only got the rental car keys."
Pierce said authorities are now demanding a notarized letter from Richards' father, who is at the funeral home making arrangements.
"Her father's at the funeral home, like we can't get a letter from him right now," Pierce said. "The cop told the sergeant yesterday from Highway Patrol, told us he came to our hotel and he said that 'I was looking for you that night in the hotel or at the hospital, but I couldn't find you. I was going to give you her stuff.' So if he was going to give it to her that night, why can't we get it now?"
The family said they cannot leave Tampa without Richards' belongings.
"We just want her things so we can leave. We can't leave. We're not gonna leave her stuff here without taking it home," Pierce said. "We're supposed to fly home. We are stuck."
Pierce described the additional trauma of dealing with bureaucracy while grieving.
"We shouldn't even be down here right now. I shouldn't even be having to fight for her stuff. We need to go home," she said. "He needs to grieve. We're all grieving. He is a wreck, like this is just — he's in shock. Her family are just, everyone's a mess, but she's so loved."
Witness describes terrifying moments
Cameron Parker was sitting on the patio at Bradley's on 7th when Sampson's vehicle crashed into the area where he and his friend were having drinks.
"I was in mid conversation, quite literally, like there was a sentence coming out of my mouth, and the next thing I know, it seems like the buildings being ripped up in slow motion," Parker said. "I'm like, why is this happening? This isn't funny. In my head I'm like, this feels like a joke that's not funny."
Parker said when the dust settled, he realized a car was directly in front of them.
"When everything comes to and everything stops and the dust and the blowback settles, I realize that there's a car right in front of us, right in front of our knees, and my knees, the spot that we were sitting behind us," he said. "It was just surreal."
Parker's first instinct was to get to safety, unsure if more danger was coming.
"I don't know if this car is going to explode. I don't know if there's something behind it. I don't know if the building is going to give way," he said. "So in my mind, I'm like, we got to go, like, we need to get out to the street where there's nothing above us, and we can figure it out from there."
Parker helped his friend climb over the vehicle to escape, then turned his attention to a woman trapped nearby.
"There's a young lady pinned between tables and stools and just kind of quite literally crumpled up before me, and she's like, 'Don't leave me. Help me. Help me. Don't leave me,'" Parker said. "I'm like, 'I'm not gonna leave you, because I wouldn't want to be left in that situation just wondering if somebody's gonna turn the corner and gonna come get me.'"
Parker told the woman he would help her escape if she could assist.
"I was like, 'I got you. If I pull you, you gotta pull back and help me. You know what I mean? Because I don't know how long we got,'" he said.
After helping the woman and her friend escape, Parker encountered another person who was unresponsive.
"There's a person next to me. I'm still just praying, because I don't know if this person was just, hopefully, I'm just hoping that they were just unconscious and they were able to be revived later," Parker said. "But there was no response from their body when I was jiggling their foot like, 'Come on, we got to go.' I was like, I'm just gonna have to send help that is equipped to handle that once I get out of here."
Parker said the entire ordeal felt both endless and instantaneous.
"I felt like it felt like an hour, and it also felt like seven seconds," he said. "There's still no real way for me to allow that time to compute, because it was like, I can't just sit here and be stuck. We have to go."
A light night turned tragic
Parker described the atmosphere before the crash as relaxed and enjoyable.
"The patio was like, comfortably crowded," he said. "I was telling somebody else, it was a very light night. The energy was very light. It was just fun."
He said he had even told his friend they would have a quick visit and head home early.
"I even told my friend that, you know, I'm glad that it's kind of already, like around 10, 10:30, because, like, neither of us want to be out super late, so let's just meet, say hi, and then we'll go back home," Parker said. "And so that was the energy of the night."
Parker said the area wasn't overly crowded compared to other events he had witnessed there.
"There were people on the sidewalk, sadly, but nothing was like overly crowded, like events that I've been to prior," he said. "In my opinion, it was pretty chill, because I've been to where it's the street leads into the sidewalk, leads into people, leads into just one mass of people. So it wasn't that."
Driver's alleged statements
According to a criminal affidavit, Sampson had been fleeing from Florida Highway Patrol Trooper A. Carrasco after reckless driving and evading Tampa Police Department units. The pursuit was called off due to heavy pedestrian traffic in Ybor City, but Sampson continued fleeing at high speed before crashing.
Parker said he remembered the driver's door opening after the crash, which further trapped victims.
"I remember the door opening, we were already pinned. And I remember the door opening and wanting to pin us in further," Parker said. "I'm not saying that he wanted to, but I'm just saying that's what the door was physically doing. And I'm like, 'Oh my God.' Like we're already in here and jammed in here, quite literally, like sardines."
While Parker said he couldn't definitively recall seeing Sampson exit the vehicle, he questioned the driver's actions based on the affidavit's contents.
"If that is what happened, it speaks to the remorse and or the lack of remorse, because I could see if you get out and you're like, 'Oh my god, I'm so sorry. Oh my god,'" Parker said. "But getting out and trying to get the door open really quick so you can scramble and run somewhere while people are already pinned — it just doesn't compute."
After exiting his vehicle, Sampson attempted to flee on foot but was detained by Tampa Police officers. While in custody, he made several statements including asking how many people he had killed and saying, "Ok, so I killed someone. Ok. Ok, just get me to the jail so I can get these handcuffs off. I'll go and sit for a few months."
Officers observed Sampson was unsteady on his feet with disheveled clothing and the odor of alcohol on his breath. He refused a voluntary blood sample, but a search warrant was obtained for blood testing.
Parker criticized the circumstances that led to the crash occurring in such a pedestrian-heavy area.
"I know everybody makes mistakes. I've made mistakes. I know you have. Nobody's perfect, but the whole, all the puzzle pieces of the night leading up to that, the chase, all of that just, I feel like could have been avoided," he said. "I feel like where the chase stopped or where they were treated could have been miles and miles away."
Calls for safety changes
The crash has renewed calls for pedestrian safety improvements in Ybor City's entertainment district.
"Even encroaching upon Seventh Avenue, which speaks to and leads to the need for the pedestrian safety issues that we're dealing with over here," Parker said. "Even if it's just peak hours that the street is blocked off or nobody can come through here, something's got to be done. We're jumping up and down screaming. We need some sort of a change. Please. We need some sort of a change."
Despite the trauma, Parker said the experience won't necessarily keep him from returning to the area, though it has changed his perspective.
"It just makes me know that I need to continue to be aware of my surroundings, kind of much like I was that evening," he said. "I remember my father always kind of positions himself to where he can see as much of everything that he can see behind, peripheral, all that, and that's kind of what's been instilled in me."
Parker said his positioning that night may have saved his life.
"So that's why my back was up against the window. I could see passersby, I could see everybody on the patio. I could see what I needed to see," he said. "I honestly feel like if even my back was turned, or if I was facing in the opposite direction, things could have gone completely differently."
While Parker escaped physical injury, he said the psychological impact remains significant.
"I don't know. I'm just thankful that I was in a position to help people that needed it. I'm thankful that I wasn't injured," he said. "The trauma and the nightmares and the things are real currently for me. But that doesn't minimize anybody who was physically injured and the families who are experiencing loss."
Ongoing impact
Pierce said her son Collin remains in shock over losing his fiancée just days after their engagement.
"This is just the beginning, and we just need to get her stuff so we can leave," Pierce said. "It's the grieving process. I'm furious, we're just wiped out, and we just don't want to do anymore."
She described the additional pain of being stranded in an unfamiliar city while trying to navigate bureaucracy.
"It's just being in a strange city and being told certain things, and they've been nice, but they're telling us one thing, and then today was a completely different story from every single person we talked to," Pierce said. "No one once said that we're going to hold this and we need a notarized letter from one of the parents, because they're not married."
Parker said returning to the crash site brought mixed emotions.
"It's bittersweet to be standing right here, because it could have been to a point where I couldn't have, or wouldn't have walked away," he said. "We walked in, and towards that door was where our table was, so this tire mark situation was where we were sitting."
He pointed out how close other potential victims came to being in the path of the vehicle.
"Those birthday girls, soon as we came out, they bumped around the corner, were standing right there," Parker said. "I just remember once I realized that they had already walked away. I'm like, thank God, because that's right in the path of all of us."
Sampson faces four counts of vehicular homicide (leaving the scene) and four counts of aggravated fleeing to elude, causing serious bodily injury or death.
Pierce said the family's focus remains on bringing Richards home and supporting her grieving fiancé.
"All of our families are just so upset and grieving. We just need to be together, and we're stuck here trying to get stupid stuff that doesn't mean anything to them," she said. "There's no evidence in her purse or cell phone. There's nothing. She was hit, and her purse came off of her, and they tried giving her that night at the hospital. Why can't they give it to us now? What's the difference?"
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