NFL star Henry Ruggs III loves driving rough. A year before Tuesday's deadly crash, Ruggs was filmed by his girlfriend, Kiara Kilgo-Washington, speeding on a residential street in his brand-new custom Chevrolet Corvette as she nervously begged him to slow down and drop her at her home as she feared of dying. The video was uploaded last year on YouTube.
In the September 2020 video recorded by Washington and posted on her YouTube channel, The RUPrint, Ruggs laughs as he revs the engine of his car for a high-speed joyride in Las Vegas. The video was titled "Wild Out Wednesdays."
Out of Control
The eight-minute clip, reviewed by the Las Vegas Review-Journal before it was deleted Friday morning, also features the caption, "'SLOW DOWNNN" with smiley face emojis. The video shows Ruggs speeding off, while Washington is petrified.
The video was taken 14 months before Ruggs on Tuesday slammed his Corvette into Tina Tintor, 23, at 127mph, with the young woman dying as her Toyota Rav4 was consumed by flames.
The video then goes on to show Ruggs enjoying the fear on his girlfriend's face as he further accelerates. "You scared?" Ruggs asks Washington in the 2020 video as she sits in the front passenger seat.
"No, just don't do it no more," she replies.
After Washington sees that Ruggs is in no mood to slow down, Washington then asks what the athlete plans to do next, the video shows.
"Launch," Ruggs tells her, as the car revs in the background. "What rockets do? Take off."
Too Aggressive
The video ends after that. Ruggs appears to be driving the same Chevrolet Corvette Stingray in the video that crashed on Tuesday. Police said that Ruggs had sped up to 156 mph before slamming into Tintor, killing her and her dog instantly. He was also allegedly drunk at that time. Ruggs' blood alcohol content was twice the state's legal limit of .08, prosecutors said.
In the moments immediately following the deadly collision, Ruggs was filmed sitting on the road and embracing his girlfriend and sobbing in an out of consciousness next to his mangled car, as Tintor's SUV was being consumed by a fireball just a few feet away.
Ruggs, who had a four-year, $16million contract with the Las Vegas Raiders was immediately released by his team the next morning. He had purchased the customized green Chevy Corvette C8 Stingray, which he lovingly dubbed 'Lizzy,' last year. He also previously bragged about the luxury car on social media.
Ruggs now faces felony charges and posted a $150,000 bond on Wednesday. During the deadly crash both Ruggs and Washington, who have a young daughter together, suffered injuries in the crash.
Ruggs wore a neck brace and sat in a wheelchair during his initial court appearance on Wednesday. During a court hearing, defense attorney David Chesnoff told Justice of the Peace Joe Bonaventure that his client has a clean record. His defense attorney, David Chesnoff, told the court that the player was "a young man who has never been in trouble before. From what we understand, never a traffic violation."
However, it's not going to be easy for Ruggs from here and if proved guilty might ruin his career.
