NEW ORLEANS - Police are investigating a bizarre crash in the valet parking area of Harrah’s Casino that left a wife and mother of three dead and sent two men to the hospital.
Six vehicles were damaged in the incident that occurred shortly after midnight.
Sunday, dozens of family and friends gathered in the 2900 block of Gravier Street to remember the life of 30-year-old Quiana Jones.
Jones lived in New Orleans and grew up in Laplace. She had spent Saturday night with friends at Harrah's Casino downtown when police say a 22-year-old male valet service employee, lost control of a Lincoln Navigator while backing up. He hit five cars, including two taxi cabs. When it was all over, three people had been struck, two male employees, in good condition with face, leg and arm injuries, and Quiana.
"I mean, I love her. She was taken too soon. I wish I could just bring her back. I can't do it but I know she's in a better place and I know she's watching over me right now. That was my little buddy and I miss her," said Marva Sanders of her daughter.
Her husband Derrick went to see her at University Hospital but never got to say good-bye.
"And then the doctor came in, okay and my first thing was I said, 'Okay, will she be able to walk again?' and doctor said, 'No, she's dead,' " recalled Derrick Jones, Quiana's husband.
Quiana leaves behind three sons, 14, 12 and 11-years-old. Her family describes her as a go-getter. She was a businesswoman who had recently gone out on her own as an insurance agent.
Her husband says through her work, she was helping to him get though an injury.
"I broke my foot July the first and she just opened a little business up trying to get the insurance thing started and whatnot and she said, 'Baby' and she made me, my wife would never lie to me never, never, never, lie and she said, 'Baby, I'll be back.' And she never came back and this is where I'm at right now.
This is a close knit group of relatives and friends. Quiana's mother-in-law lived right next door.
"From the time she walked in my door, we took to each other. She always, always, appreciate everything that we have done together, everything that we do together. We did everything as a family and I helped her with the kids. I will always cherish the relationship that we had together," said Rosemary Jones, Quiana's mother-in-law.
One of the hardest things Derrick had to do was wake his boys, boys he calls his three little soldiers, to give them the news in the dark of the early morning hours.
"And when they seen my mom crying that's when they really sunk. My oldest son, he didn't really, he was numb. My middle child cried," remembers Derrick Jones.
In any fatality police say it is standard to run tests on the driver for drug and alcohol use. Those tests are pending. The family wants answers. How exactly did Quiana die? What was wrong with the driver or the car to cause their personal tragedy? Now they struggle to redefine their roles and fill the shoes of a wife, daughter, friend and mother.
"I will be there. I will be there. I will be there," said Rosemary Jones about the future of her three grandsons.
No one from Harrah's Casino would go on camera saying it is a police investigation.
In a statement they wrote that Harrah's is cooperating fully with the New Orleans Police Department and have placed the valet service worker on leave according to company policy. And Harrah's adds that it sends its deepest sympathies to the family.
