Father Devastated Over Death Of 20-Year-Old Girl In Suspected Drag Race

DETROIT (WWJ) Police are continuing to investigate potential charges in a traffic crash that killed a 20-year-old Detroit woman and injured three others early Tuesday morning on Detroit's northwest side.

Fred Ferguson, who raised victim Cierra Bean as his daughter, describes the loss as heartbreaking.

"She was a beautiful person inside and out, would give her all to friends, family ... Just funny and vibrant and alive," he said.

Ferguson says some at the scene told him the driver was drag racing in the car in which Bean was the passenger, but the young man behind the wheel told him he lost control after he swerved to avoid a car with no headlights.

Ferguson got the call that makes up parent's nightmares early Tuesday morning. The girl he had raised was in an accident.

He rushed there.

"The street is blocked off at Evergreen as you approached Clarita ... And you get out of the car and you have to walk, I'm telling you it felt like 5 miles, my legs wouldn't move," he said.

Bean had been thrown from the vehicle. She was gone.

The crash happened early Tuesday morning on Evergreen Road just south of 7 Mile Road.

Reporting live from the scene, WWJ's Mike Campbell said the SUV took out a light pole and rolled several times, smashing into a house, before coming to a rest on the front lawn of another house.

LaRonte Bean-Benion identified the victim as his sister, Cierra Bean. He thought speed had something to do with her death.

"She was just a passenger trying to get a ride to work and now she's no longer here over some fools drag racing. As you can see, you know, down Evergreen, it shopped the pole in half and rolled over I don't know how many times, and she was ejected from the vehicle," said Bean-Benion.