First responders speak at the scene of a car crash in the 3200 block of Esplanade avenue around 9 p.m. on Saturday. The NOPD reports two bicyclists were hit and killed by a driver. (Zach Brien, MidCityMessenger.com)
Tashonty Toney (via Orleans Parish jail)
Tashonty Toney, 32, was arrested on charges of vehicular homicide, vehicular negligent injury, reckless operation of a vehicle and hit-and-run driving after the crash, which killed Sharree Walls, 27, and David Hynes, 31, and injured seven other people on Esplanade Avenue near Ponce de Leon Street near the Endymion route.
Police said Toney was believed to be “impaired” at the time of the crash but have yet to release any information about his blood-alcohol levels. NOPD spokesman Gary Scheets said Thursday that those tests are still underway at the Louisiana State Police laboratory in Baton Rouge.
No details about the tests — including how long they are expected to take — will be released until they are complete and returned to the NOPD, said Sgt. Melissa Matey of the Louisiana State Police public affairs division.
“The process or timeframe depends on exactly what tests NOPD requested,” Matey said in an email to Uptown Messenger on Thursday afternoon. “For example, a Blood Alcohol Concentration level only does not take as much time verses a full toxicology screen. LSP will not comment on a results from a requested test from another agency.”
When the tests are complete, they will be returned to New Orleans Police Department for release to the public, Matey concluded.
Toney is the son of a New Orleans police officer, but the department has said that will have no bearing on his treatment and that federal consent-decree monitors are observing the handling of his case.
Dean Grey, right, consoles the father of Sharree Walls, left, during a memorial last weekend for the victims of the March 2 crash. (Zach Brien, MidCityMessenger.com)
