6 days ago
Death and amputation after boat driver 'found behind the wheel with THIRTY NINE empty cans of beer'
A North Carolina boater allegedly had 39 empty beer cans on board when he crashed into unsuspecting swimmers - killing a little girl and leaving a woman without a leg.
Quinten Kight, 40, stands accused of drunk driving a boat in Shearon Harris Lake and causing the fatal collision that killed Brooklyn Carroll and severely injured Jennifer Stehle, 41, on Saturday at around 4:30pm.
The suspect rammed the vessel into Brooklyn and Stehle when he turned his back to look at a tube he was pulling, carrying two people, according to investigators.
The victims were in the water with a third swimmer, Brooklyn's mother Kim.
Authorities rushed to the scene, but Brooklyn had already died. Stehle's left leg was shredded by the boat's propeller.
She was airlifted to a hospital where her the mutilated limb was amputated from above the knee.
When officials confronted Kight they discovered 39 empty beer cans on the boat. He was allegedly trying to get rid of them as investigators arrived.
Seven of these cans appeared to have been 'shotgunned,' Chatham County District Attorney Jeff Nieman said in court on Monday, KPTV reported.
Police said other containers of alcohol were found outside the boat, which are believed to have been Kight's as well.
The suspect is charged with Operating While Impaired and Death by Impaired Boating and remains in jail on a $500,000 bond.
'It's absolutely preventable any time that someone gets out on the water and partakes in drinking alcohol or using any other impairing substance,' Wildlife Resource Commission Sgt Claude Smith told ABC 11.
Brooklyn was entering the fifth grade at West Lake Elementary School, where Stehle works as a social worker.
'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,' Brooklyn's family wrote on GoFundMe.
'Her laughter, kindness, and energy brought so much joy to her family and friends.'
A relative created the fundraiser to help ease the financial burden on Brooklyn's grieving parents, Kim and Matt, as they arrange to lay their daughter to rest. So far, more than $39,000 has been donated.
Another GoFundMe was started to support Stehle and her family as she embarks on the grueling road to recovery that lies ahead.
Kight (pictured during his virtual court appearance on Monday) had racked up an unflattering criminal track record prior to allegedly drunk driving in Shearon Harris Lake
The mother-of-two 'will require extensive therapy and rehabilitation as she works to recover,' organizers wrote. More than $78,700 has been donated.
Kight told the court on Monday that he was an Army veteran. According to records reviewed by the Daily Mail, he was given a court appointed lawyer.
The Public Defender's Office could not provide the name of Kight's court-appointed attorney to the Daily Mail.
Court documents obtained by ABC 11 revealed Kight had racked up an unflattering criminal track record prior to allegedly drunk driving in Shearon Harris Lake.
He was arrested in New Mexico in 2009 with DUI and has pending charges from a 2023 hit-and-run that harmed Alex Myers, 35, of Vass, North Carolina.
'If they would have been able to do something and maybe I don't know, penalize this guy in some way maybe that little girl would still be alive,' said Myers of Saturday's tragedy.
He recalled the moment he first learned that the man who allegedly struck him with a truck had been accused of yet another senseless crime.'
'I opened it up, and it was just mind blowing to me that that guy is just living out there completely careless,' he told ABC 11.
