Warrant says brother fell out of SUV, run over during RTP auto meetup. Teen charged.
Durham County sheriff’s deputies pulled up to a cancer screening center’s parking lot just before midnight in July, looking into a report of a person hit by a car.
They found EMS doing chest compressions on Oscar Santos, while blood pooled beneath him. Several potential witnesses, including Santos’ brother, were in the parking lot marred with blood and looping tire tracks, according to a search warrant obtained five days after the June 13 incident.
No one at the scene explained what happened to the 22-year-old Santos, who officials rushed to Duke University hospital, where he died, states a warrant request from Sheriff Detective J. Tran.
After Santos’ mother arrived at the hospital, she grabbed a gun in an attempt to commit suicide, the warrant states.
On Tuesday, the Durham County Sheriff’s Office announced that a 16-year-old has been charged with involuntary manslaughter in the death that deputies believed to have occurred during a car meetup.
The search warrant indicates that the youth is Santos’ younger brother.
Lots of witnesses, no explanation
After detectives arrived at the parking lot on N.C. 54 outside the Grail company in Research Triangle Park, they spoke to people they believed had gathered for a meetup, events where drivers execute stunts in cars, SUVs and motorbikes and sometimes take over busy intersections.
People there told detectives that they didn’t see the incident, but heard a loud noise before several cars sped away, the warrant says. No one provided a plausible explanation, including Santos’ younger brother before he was rushed away to the hospital to check on his brother, the warrant says.
Detectives collected bits of scattered plastic and other debris in the parking lot, marked with Santos’ blood and looping tire marks — which are often left from car meetups where drivers circle at high rates of speed before a crowd of people.
In recent years, car meetups have increased following promotion on social media and other places, the warrant states.
They can include situations where dozens of vehicles and SUVs take over busy intersections, racing through traffic and doing stunts.
Investigation leads to brother
Detectives used Google Lens to match a piece of the car debris to a plastic cover piece from a side mirror of a Chevy Trailblazer, a small SUV.
After news reports on the death and its tie to a car meetup, police received information and videos from anonymous sources, the warrant application says.
One video showed a gray Trailblazer, driving in circles, leaning on two left tires before falling back down to all four tires. In the video, the vehicle moved out of view while a crowd sprints toward Santos’ body, the warrant states.
The source who provided the video said Santos’ brother was driving the vehicle, lost control and ran over his brother in an accident.
Another source told detectives that Santos’ younger brother was driving and Oscar Santos was hanging out the window recording the stunt, the warrant states. The younger brother lost control of the Trailblazer, flinging Oscar Santos out and then running over him, the source said, according to the warrant.
The SUV was towed to Benson, where the brother lives, and stored under a tarp, the source told detectives, according to the search warrant.
Detectives contacted Benson police, who found the vehicle shortly.
During the July 19 search of the vehicle, deputies seized the left side mirror, the warrant states.
Durham County Sheriff Clarence Birkhead said in a statement released Tuesday that his office has worked to address illegal meetups.
“Activities at and after these events are not only illegal but as in this case dangerous for both participants and bystanders. Mr. Santos’ death is a tragic example of what can happen at these gatherings,” Birkhead said.
Potential consequences for those involved in car racing and meetups include seizure of their vehicle pending trial, sale of the vehicle upon conviction and potential suspension of their driver’s license, a Sheriff’s Office press release states.
Virginia Bridges covers criminal justice in the Triangle and across North Carolina for The News & Observer. Her work is produced with financial support from the nonprofit The Just Trust. The N&O maintains full editorial control of its journalism.
This story was originally published November 12, 2024 at 3:13 PM.
