RICHMOND, Va. (WTVR) – A Richmond high school student pleaded no contest in connection with South Richmond crash that killed an 18-year-old student last June.
Mohammed Bangura, 20, pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor reckless driving charge in court Friday morning. The judge accepted Bangura’s no contest plea and found him guilty.
Eighteen-year-old Antonio Shands Jr., a Huguenot High School student, was killed in a Friday morning wreck that happened along Old Westham Road near Cherokee Road.
The commonwealth's attorney said Bangura, who also attended Huguenot, was driving a car full of teens at a time they should have been in school.
The commonwealth's attorney said truancy officer Herbert Plummer was riding in a city car with a Richmond police officer that had no lights or equipment.
The prosecutor told the judge that Plummer saw one of the teens turn around and spot him.
Previously others in the car reported the truancy officer was chasing the teens, but the prosecutor said it was Bangura who was driving erratically.
Authorities said that the car Bangura was driving did not stop when it approached the intersection with Cherokee. When the car ran the stop sign, a pickup truck traveling north on Cherokee slammed into the passenger side of the car.
Shelby Brown said defense attorneys argued Bangura had a clean record and had never been in trouble before. Bangura said he and his family are still coming to grips with what happened and are horrified that Shands Jr. was killed.
In fact, defense attorneys said Bangura wishes that he had been the one killed in the crash and not his friend.
Bangura is scheduled to be sentenced in May.
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