‘Support and love’: Vigil honors mother, sons killed in suspected DUI crash
About 200 people braved cold temperatures to attend a Wednesday evening vigil hosted by a 19-year-old woman whose mother and two young brothers died Sunday in a car crash involving a suspected drunk driver in Henderson.
Leighonna Post, daughter of Rebecca Post, 38, and sister to Achilles Quintanilla, 6, and Leo Post-Quintanilla, 5, organized the ceremony with people holding lit candles or flashlights from their mobile phones to honor their lives.
“It’s just amazing how many friends, family, people I haven’t talked to in years, people my mom hasn’t talked to in years, came to show support and love,” Post said as she viewed the crowd gathered at Ortwein Elementary School in southwest Las Vegas.
‘I want you guys to share their names’
Holding a small candle, Post then stood on a playground bench at the school, where Achilles and Leo had been students, to speak about the family members she lost.
“I want you guys to say their names,” she said. “I want you guys to share their stories, even though you don’t know my family. I want you to say their names. Their names are so strong, so powerful.”
“It’s Rebecca, Leo and Achilles,” she said. “You can’t ever forget those names. And we are going to fight until they get justice.”
The tragic crash unfolded at the intersection of East Lake Mead Parkway and Grand Cadence in Henderson at 5:49 p.m. Sunday when a white Dodge Ram 1500 pickup police say was driven by Darryl Smith, headed west on the parkway, rear-ended Rebecca Post’s black Hyundai sedan as she waited at a red light, according to a Henderson Police Department arrest report.
Smith’s pickup was in the number two travel lane before the intersection, which showed no skid marks, when it failed to stop at the red light and collided with the Hyundai, crushing its rear trunk section and forcing the Hyundai forward into a black BMW SUV, causing major damage to the Hyundai’s hood, police said in the report.
The pickup then went into another lane, collided with a Ford Ranger and rolled onto its side with the passenger-side tires in the air, according to police.
When a paramedic drove up to the scene, he saw Smith stumble out and asked if he had been drinking, to which Smith told him, “I had a pretty good amount” and mentioned “he had had 3 glasses of wine and cough syrup,” the report said.
Smith, who was injured, was sent to St. Rose Dominican Hospital, where police drew blood samples from him and soon booked him into the Henderson Detention Center on suspicion of three counts of DUI with death and reckless driving with death, police said.
Both Rebecca Post and Leo died at the scene, while Achilles died a short time later at University Medical Center, according to police.
Speaking before news cameras and reporters, Leighonna Post, who attends college in St. George, Utah, said she wanted to address local motorists.
“My message for drivers in Las Vegas?” she said. “I know we live in a party city. I know that drinking, smoking, all of that, is heavily a part of our culture in our life.
“One thing that my family, my friends, we all have decided to do is cut out alcohol completely out of our lives, period. Because what happened to my brothers and my mom happens every single day.”
‘A really positive person’
Hillary Page, who was Rebecca Post’s hairstylist for the past 18 months, said the two became friends and that Rebecca texted her literally minutes prior to Sunday’s fatal crash before Page was to meet Leighonna Post in St. George for lunch.
“She was really amazing, she was always talking about her children,” said Page, standing with her 9-year-old daughter Arden. “Always talking about (Leighonna), so proud of her boys with their jujitsu and martial arts and ATVs and dirt bikes.”
“I keep trying to relive her voice in my head because she had such a soft voice,” Page said. “It was really calm and comforting. We always had such great appointments together, and she was just a really positive person.”
‘They had so much love’
Olivia Wiggin, 19, who was the boys’ occasional babysitter, said that they “were just so full of life. They were the most energetic kids I had ever babysat, let alone ever saw.”
“They had so much love,” she said. “They woke us up every morning. I spent the night, they came and crawled into the bed, either smacked me in the head or shook us until we woke up, and we’d go downstairs so we could go play with them. They were just amazing kids.”
Contact Jeff Burbank at jburbank@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0382. Follow him @JeffBurbank2 on X.
