Boston woman mowed down in road-rage attack has died, mom tells driver: ‘Burn directly in hell’
A Massachusetts woman who was mowed down by a car in an alleged road-rage incident has died, according to her mother, who had some choice words for the driver charged in the crash.
Destini Decoff, 26, died from her injuries in the hospital on Sunday, three days after the incident in the Boston suburb of Hopkinton, Mass., in which she was hit by a car and thrown several feet in the air, with the devastating impact tearing off her clothes.
“Today my biggest fear as a mother became my reality,” Destini’s heartbroken mom, Tracy Decoff, wrote on her Facebook page. “My firstborn child & best friend is no longer with me.”
The alleged driver of the Honda Civic that struck Decoff, identified by prosecutors as 36-year-old Ryan Sweatt, has been arrested and charged with assault and battery with a dangerous weapon causing serious bodily injury, along with other counts.
“With every ounce of my being I hope that mf burns directly in hell!” Tracy Decoff seethed Thursday when her daughter was still on life support.
She later applauded the Middlesex County District Attorney’s Office’s decision to charge Sweatt, writing on social media: “If anyone knows his mama tell her she raised a b*tch.”
Sweatt was driving in Hopkinton Thursday night when he became involved in an “apparent road rage incident” with another vehicle carrying Decoff and four of her friends, according to a statement from the DA’s Office citing the findings of a preliminary investigation.
In Sweatt’s version of events relayed to the police, the driver of the other vehicle slammed on the brakes in front of him as he was heading home.
At some point, Decoff and some of her pals got out of their car — and Sweatt claimed they threatened to kill him, with one allegedly pulling a knife on him.
Sweatt got back in his Honda and drove away, but then allegedly made a U-turn and slammed into Decoff “at a high rate of speed” as she stood in the road, according to prosecutors.
“He chose to turn around, chose to come back. He knew what he was doing when he went towards that girl,” witness Brett Martin told WBZ.
Martin observed the crash from a nearby pub and said he saw Decoff in midair as she fell to the ground.
“Her jacket must’ve been 20 feet away from her,” he recalled. “However she got hit, those clothes flew off.”
Decoff was taken to a hospital suffering from injuries “head to toe,” according to her mom, including a brain bleed and internal bleeding, collapsed lungs, broken shoulders, ribs and tibia.
After spending the night in surgery to remove a portion of her skull to relieve the pressure on her brain and cut out her spleen, Decoff was placed on a ventilator. She died without ever regaining consciousness.
“You know I don’t break promises & i promise you with every ounce of my being I will get justice for you regardless of what it takes!” Tracy Decoff vowed in a post announcing her first-born child’s death.
Sweatt was arraigned Friday in Framingham District Court. In addition to the assault and battery charges, the 36-year-old was hit with counts of operating to endanger and a marked lanes violation.
At the arraignment, a prosecutor told the court that a police officer saw Sweatt speed away. When he pulled him over, the suspect was quoted as yelling, “They’re trying to kill me,” while pointing toward a group of people standing in the road around Decoff lying next to a pool of blood.
Sweatt was ordered jailed without bail pending a dangerousness hearing scheduled for Wednesday.
