‘Kind of unreal.’ Loved ones mourn Raleigh woman who was killed helping car crash victims
Jasmine Harbison radiated life and love among her family and friends and was always there for those in need.
Harbison’s friends say her desire to help others likely led her to pull over in the early hours of Sunday morning when she saw a Chevrolet Equinox flipped on its side on South Miami Boulevard in Durham following a collision with a Nissan Maxima.
While she and her boyfriend were helping those trapped inside the car, an SUV fatally struck Harbison after 2:30 a.m, near the site of the accident, Durham police said. Harbison, of Raleigh, was 29 and had an 11-year-old daughter.
Her friends and family are in disbelief over her unexpected death, and they already feel her absence. But her memory continues to inspire them — just like she did, family members told The News & Observer.
“I’m doing better now, I got most of my tears out,” said André Harbison, 31, one of Harbison’s five brothers, in an interview with The News & Observer.
“You know how we guys are — try not to cry and try not to show emotion but, you know, it being your little sister ... it feels kind of unreal. You know?” Harbison said. “Just the fact I’m sitting here talking to a reporter about this. Like, this really is real.”
The three occupants of the 2010 Chevrolet SUV that hit Harbison were injured, but have been released from the hospital, Durham Police said Tuesday. Both accidents, which happened on the 4300 block of South Miami Boulevard, remain under investigation, and no charges have been filed in either the initial accident or the one that killed Harbison.
Police said alcohol and speed were behind the first collision that caused the Chevrolet Equinox to rotate, flip and end on the northbound lane of South Miami Boulevard. Alcohol isn’t believed to be involved with the fatal crash, police said.
A loved sister, cousin and hairstylist
Amid the confusion and suddenness of Harbison’s death, her knack for helping others offers her family some clarity.
“That’s how we (Harbisons) are, you know,” André Harbison said. “Big heart.”
Reginald Davis, one of the Harbison cousins, grew up with Jasmine while visiting their grandmother in east Durham.
“If the circumstances of her death were different I’d still feel the same, because of how we were brought up together,” Davis said. “(In our childhood) we really helped ourselves build each other up ... we looked at each other as brother and sister.”
Just last month, Davis told his cousin that he was proud of watching her blossom professionally and personally.
When Harbison wasn’t running Slayed by Rozay, her successful hair business, the east Durham native and alumna of N.C. Central University shared close bonds with her mother and brothers.
She also enjoyed being the owner of a new home in Raleigh, where she raised her daughter, Jada.
Her business, which specializes in faux locs and microlinks, has five-star reviews on Facebook. It boasts nearly 11,000 followers on Instagram and 10,000 followers on TikTok, where she received thousands of likes.
“RIP she risked her life trying to save somebody,” reads one of the many comments mourning her in her last TikTok video, in which she is doing her hair before homecoming events at NCCU last weekend.
‘That’s my little sister’
Harbison was with her boyfriend when they parked his car in the right southbound lane of South Miami Boulevard to help, Durham police said. The car’s hazard lights were on, police said.
“Just the way it happened, it don’t make sense to me,” said her brother, André. “Yeah, I want my sister to save somebody and help them out, but to put her own life in danger? I don’t have the full picture, man.”
He says he feels frustrated not knowing exactly what happened and why the SUV’s driver did not see her in the road.
“That’s my little sister. You feel me?” he said.
At 18 years old, she had her daughter while a senior at South Granville High School in Creedmoor. She raised her while working and going to school at NCCU. She graduated from NCCU in 2019 with a degree in behavioral and social sciences.
Harbison’s persistence in achieving her dreams still draws admiration for her brother.
“She definitely held it down,” he said. “She was a very, very, very independent woman.”
On a Facebook post — a video of Harbison dancing in a parking lot — a friend said Harbison’s death “feels like a bad dream.”
“Such a beautiful soul, I still can’t believe it,” wrote one friend in a Facebook post. “Not enough words to describe this feeling ... The funny one with the biggest heart of them all, even in her last moment helping others.”
This story was originally published November 10, 2021 at 5:45 AM.
