Authorities have charged a driver with manslaughter for allegedly running over a 19-year-old nursing student in the parking lot of an East Long Beach shopping center.
Grace Edwards and her mother were walking through the lot outside a Five Below and Trader Joe’s on Bellflower Boulevard near Stearns Street when the driver struck and killed her, according to police and a fundraiser for her family.
Authorities said the crash happened around 3:55 p.m. on Nov. 2 as the driver was pulling out of a parking spot. Police suspect distracted driving played a role.
In March, police sought a warrant to arrest the suspected driver, Deasean Alphonzia Edwards, who has no apparent relation to Grace Edwards.
He appeared in Long Beach Superior Court on Wednesday and pleaded not guilty to vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence and vehicular manslaughter without gross negligence.
If convicted, he could face up to 6 years in state prison, according to prosecutors. He was ordered held on $30,000 bail.
Haley and Scott Sousa, friends of the Edwards family, launched a fundraiser a day after her death.
“Grace was a vibrant and carefree 19-year-old girl,” they wrote on the fundraiser. “She was a loving daughter, sister, granddaughter, friend, and nursing student. She touched the lives of so many, including young families as she cared for many children at her church and in her community.”
The Sousas said that Grace Edwards was an organ donor and that her heart was donated to an 8-year-old child.
“We are comforted by the fact that her legacy is going to live on and bring life to others,” they wrote.