Left inset: Quinten Kight (Chatham County District Court). Right inset: Brooklyn Mae Carroll (GoFundMe). Background: Harris Lake in North Carolina (Wake County).
The boater who crashed into a group of swimmers on a North Carolina lake, killing a 10-year-old girl and causing a woman to have her leg amputated, had dozens of beer cans in his vessel and was looking behind him at the tubers he was hauling when the incident occurred, according to authorities.
Quinten Gregory Kight, 40, is facing a slew of charges, including operating a motor vessel while under the influence while causing death and causing a serious injury by impaired boating, court records say. The incident occurred Saturday afternoon on the Shearon Harris Reservoir in Chatham County.
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Kight was driving his boat when he crashed into three swimmers about 100 feet off shore, the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission reportedly said. The crash killed 10-year-old Brooklyn Mae Carroll. Kight also struck a woman with the boat”s propeller which caused her left leg to be amputated above the knee, cops said.
District Attorney Jeff Nieman revealed additional information during Kight’s first appearance on Monday. Cops found some 39 beer cans in the boat, plus a half dozen more authorities believe also were in the vessel at the time of the crash, Nieman said, according to a courtroom report from local NBC affiliate WRAL. There was also evidence of people on the boat “shotgunning” beers, per Nieman. Kight reportedly had several people on the boat at the time of the crash but Nieman did not say how many.
Nieman told the court that Kight wasn’t even looking forward as he was driving the boat, but instead looking back at the people on the inner tube he was hauling.
Authorities took a sample of Kight’s blood to determine the blood alcohol content, but those results have not yet been publicly released.
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Meanwhile ,Brooklyn’s family is planning her funeral.
“BB was a light in every room she entered, with an infectious smile, a loving heart, and a spirit that touched everyone who knew her. Her laughter, kindness, and energy brought so much joy to her family and friends,” a GoFundMe page stated.
Kight is in the Chatham County Jail on a $500,000 bond. His next court date is scheduled for Aug. 20. He currently has a separate hit-and-run case pending in Moore County, and court records from New Mexico show that he pleaded guilty to DUI in that state in 2010.
