A fundraising program has been launched after a family lost their father to a car crash. His two stepsons were critically injured in the same accident in Beach Park Friday evening.

Justin Moland, the coach of the Waukegan Panthers youth baseball team, said in a GoFundMe fundraiser that his players, Giovanny Rodriguez, his brother Alejandro and their stepfather, Jose Hernandez, were involved in the fatal car accident, reported ABC 7 Chicago.

Both Giovanny and Hernandez were a part of the team’s summer league championship season, Moland said. Alejandro played for Waukegan Savages age division team.

Leilanis teammate got into a horrible accident! Thankfully he made it through along with his brother. Unfortunately his stepfather passed away! Jose was such a great person! So sweet and kind! Anything you can donate would help a lot! Or even sharing this https://t.co/J3mch3Qq4X

— Juice (@nailedbyjuice) October 10, 2021

The car crash happened around 6:45 p.m. Friday on Green Bay Road north of Wadsworth Road in Beach Park.

The Lake County Sheriff’s Office and Beach Park Fire Department were quick to react to the incident and found a crash involving four vehicles.

As per the preliminary investigation report, a 2017 Jeep Patriot, driven by a 50-year-old woman, tried to pass a truck, and then it hit a tractor and the jeep drove northbound in the lanes of Green Bay Road.

The jeep then crashed into a southbound 2014 Kia Soul, driven by Hernandez, 49, reported Lake & Mchenry County Scanner.

Hernandez was rushed to Vista Medical Center East in an ambulance in Waukegan where the medical examiner announced him dead.

Giovanny, Alejandro Critical

Giovanny and Alejandro suffered critical injuries, and are currently under observation. Moland said that Giovanny is currently in critical condition. He has broken bones and a head injury. Alejandro, on the other hand, suffered a severe concussion and other serious injuries.

The mother, Jackie, is devastated after the accident and loss of her husband, according to Moland.

He called Hernandez a “genuinely good person” who was always “willing to lend a helping hand and have a good time.”

Talking about Giovanny and Alejandro, he said that they are kind-hearted young men who light up a room with their smiles and attitude.

“The Waukegan Panthers team has been deeply affected by this tragedy,” Moland added.

The illegally passing Jeep also crashed into a Ford Explorer that was traveling southbound directly behind Hernandez’s Kia. The driver of the Ford, a 58-year-old woman, and a passenger, a 24-year-old man, were taken to Vista Medical Center East with minor injuries, police said.

The accident is currently being investigated by the Lake County Sheriff’s Technical Crash Investigations Unit.

In a bizarre incident, a Florida sheriff has made a public declaration in search of a legal owner of high-grade marijuana weighing 770- pounds, which has a street value of two million dollars, and have it returned.

The Brevard County Sheriff’s Office took to its official Facebook page Thursday to make the eccentric announcement.

“If you happened to have lost or misplaced approximately 770 pounds of high-grade marijuana and would like to have your property returned, please contact our Narcotics Agents and we will be more than happy to reunite you with your lost property!!” Sheriff Wayne Ivey wrote in the Facebook post.

The post came after the Brevard Sherrif’s Office Narcotics Agents seized 770-pounds of marijuana from a storage facility in Viera.

Seized marijuana. Credit: Facebook/Brevard County Sheriff’s Office 

In the unusual announcement, the Sheriff’s Office urged the person who owns the misplaced marijuana to step up and claim his property from the Criminal Investigative Services building on Gus Hipp Blvd in Rockledge. The Office also said that they would happily return the drugs and keep the marijuana in a safe place to return it undamaged.

Claim Your Property With No Strings Attached: Police To Owner

“So if the 770 lbs of marijuana belongs to you, all we need you to do is come down to our Criminal Investigative Services building on Gus Hipp Blvd in Rockledge and claim your property with absolutely no strings attached!! Once we properly identify you as the rightful owner we will gladly return your property and also make sure that both you and your property are kept in a secure area so that no one can try to rip you off!!,” Sheriff Wayne Ivey further wrote in the post.

Reginald Perry Jr., a 19-year-old man accused of murdering a 21-year-old pregnant woman who was found dead in a Florida park late last month, handed himself over to the police. The woman was two weeks away from her due date.

Perry Jr. was arrested last Thursday for fatally shooting Felicia Jones and her unborn child, the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office announced in a statement posted to Facebook.

Suspect Hands Himself Over To Police

Perry Jr. turned in front of police after an arrest warrant was issued against him following his identification by the detectives as a possible suspect in the murder case. He is charged with two counts of murder, police said in the statement cited by People.com on Wednesday.

The deceased woman’s mother claimed that Perry Jr. was the father of her daughter’s unborn child. However, it is still unknown whether the accused filed any counter plea against the claim.

Representational image of a crime scene. Credit: www.pixabay.com

Victim’s Family Set Up GoFundMe Page

A GoFundMe page created by Jones’ family states that the young woman died just two weeks before her due date. She had even named her unborn son Ma’kailand.

Meanwhile, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, in its Uniform Crime Report released late September revealed a nearly 30% increase in murders in 2020, the largest single-year jump since the bureau began recording crime statistics six decades ago.

According to the agency, the surge in killings led to an overall 5% increase in violent crime last year. Though the reported annual increase was concerning, the total number of homicides in 2020 – 21,570 – did not surpass some stunning totals in the early 1990s, including the nearly 25,000 murders recorded in 1991.