A Texas mother-of-two who had her leg amputated after a serious crash caused by an alleged road rage incident a year-and-a-half has died.
Jennifer Russell of Denison, Texas, was severely injured in July 2016 when two teenage boys allegedly sideswiped the car she and her boyfriend were traveling in.
Following the road rage incident, Russell underwent 20 surgeries and had to have her right leg amputated, before she died on Monday morning.
Jennifer Russell (pictured with her son and daughter) died Monday, after being severely injured in a July 2016 road rage incident
Among Russell’s final acts was decorating the family Christmas tree and Black Friday shopping
‘She tried hard. She was pretty much sick every day since the accident,’ Russell’s mother, Lisa Barlow, told KHOU.
One of Russell’s last actions, Barlow said, was to decorate the Christmas tree and get into her wheelchair to go Black Friday shopping to buy her kids Christmas presents.
Russell passed away with her children — her four-year-old daughter and 12-year-old son — by her bed.
Barlow told KHOU that even though Russell had forgiven the teens that allegedly caused the accident, she still ‘wanted them to know they ended her world.’
Teens Joshua Haliburton (left) and Tripp Bird were charged with serious bodily injury and two counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon after the alleged road rage incident
Russell was in the passenger seat of the car her boyfriend was driving. Haliburton and Bird, driving their own cars, allegedly pushed Russell’s car into oncoming traffic
Barlow and Russell’s family said that they want the teens to be charged with murder.
The Texas Department of Public Safety said that during the road rage incident, Russell’s car was pushed into oncoming traffic. Russell was riding in the passenger seat at the time.
‘I feel like my daughter was murdered but since it wasn’t intentional, I know I can’t get that,’ Barlow told KXII.
The Denison district attorney’s office has said that they will work with Russell’s doctor to determine whether her death was the direct result of the incident and possibly amend the teens’ current charges.
At the time of the crash, the teens — Joshua Haliburton and Tripp Bird — were each charged with one count of serious bodily injury and two counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, reports KTEN.
Haliburton and Bird are currently out on bond.
The road rage incident was said to have been kicked off when Russell’s boyfriend got cut off by the two teens and spit at one of the teens’ cars, according to KTEN.
The teens, who were driving separate cars, allegedly chased Russell’s car and then forced them into oncoming traffic, at which point Russell’s car had a head-on collision with a pickup truck.