An exotic dancer will be charged with driving drunk and killing three teenage boys who were on their way to a soccer game Saturday in Miami, authorities in Florida said.
Mariam Coulibaly, 31, is facing three counts of DUI manslaughter charges, as well as three counts of vehicular manslaughter, according to a statement released late Tuesday by the North Miami Police Department.
Officer Natalie Buissereth told BuzzFeed News in a phone interview Wednesday morning that the three boys — Gedeon Desir, 13, Lens Desir, 15, and Richecarde Dumay, 17 — had been making their way to a bus stop shortly before 5:30 a.m. local time to go to meet their team for their championship match when they were struck by the car. (The two Desir boys were not related, Buissereth said.)
Coulibaly “jumped the curb or rode onto the sidewalk, possibly losing control of the vehicle, and she struck the three children,” Buissereth said.
The three boys died at the scene, she said.
Coulibaly was also injured and taken to a local hospital, where she is now in stable condition.
“I came from a black out,” she told the Miami Herald from her hospital bed. “When I woke up, I didn’t even know that I hurt people.”
Buissereth confirmed media stories that Coulibaly worked as an exotic dancer, but could not confirm reports that she had come from work before the crash.
The officer also declined to release Coulibaly’s blood alcohol level at the time of the incident, saying that police were continuing to work with the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office.
Broward County online court records show she has several previous traffic infractions for speeding and driving with a suspended license.
The three victims were members of the soccer club Little Haiti FC. “The boys are all shattered by the incident,” Mallory Kauderer, club board member, told the Miami Herald.
The club was originally established in 2014 to keep at-risk youth off of the streets.
The newspaper reported Gedeon Desir attended North Miami Middle School, while Lens Desir and Richecarde Dumay were students at Miami Edison Senior High School.
“Look at the promise in their eyes,” soccer club board member Pat Santangelo told the Herald. “Look at their smiles, the future they had.”
Supporters have established a GoFundMe page to assist with family funeral expenses.
“Our hearts go out to the loved ones of these young boys as they mourn this tragic loss,” Miami-Dade Commissioner for District 8 Daniella Levine Cava wrote on Twitter. “We can and must do better to ensure the safety of pedestrians.”