Five children killed in a fiery car crash may have been begging for cash just moments before they died, it has been claimed.
Sisters Zahnyiah, 12, and Shawnell Cross, 11, their half-brothers AJ Billips Jr., 17, and Andrew Billips, 8, and cousin Malik Smith Jr., 16, were horrifically killed on March 12 in Scarsdale, New York whilst on their way home to Connecticut, US.
Mr Smith, who had been driving the children, did not have a driving licence and was using a relative's rented car when he fled the scene, according to police.
Authorities believe he might have fallen asleep at the wheel or was distracted when he failed to make a turn and crashed into a tree which caused the car to burst into flames.
Andrew Billips, 8, was the sole survivor of the deadly crash after he was pulled from the burning car by a member of the public who spotted him.
But now footage from a New Jersey shopping mall, prior to the crash, shows the kids may have been begging for money and food from shoppers, according to WYMT.
CCTV footage shows the children talking to local shoppers “in a way that suggested they were panhandling.”
The kids claimed to be raising money for a youth basketball team when the Connecticut Department of Children and Families returned the children home.
Officers have not confirmed if the children were begging as the investigation into their tragic death continues.
The revelation comes after police had been waiting for the sole survivor to recover in hospital before asking him anything about the crash.
When officers asked the eight-year-old about the incident he initially gave police a false name and a different date of birth, according to a police report.
It stated “the younger children were his siblings. [They] appeared nervous.”
Westchester County Executive George Latimer said at the time of the tragic incident they would wait until AJ was in a comfortable position to talk.
He said: “The crash cost the lives of five young people. And that is a tragedy no matter what the details are.
"He’s just seen five members of his family die. This has got to be an impossible situation for him as a young boy. So the kind of questions that you or I would want to ask him to know these things probably isn’t appropriate until things have been stabilised”
“It was a horrific accident site.”
The driver's dad had warned his son not to drive and said if he was caught without a permit he would get in trouble as the teen would not have been able to drive legally at night.
He would also have needed to have an adult in the vehicle with him, under New York law.
Malik Smith Sr told CBS News: “I told him, his mother told him, his older brothers told him, stop driving without a license, without a permit. Anything happens, you get pulled over, you get in trouble for these things. Stop doing this.”
