Three good Samaritans gathered to help Brianna Mitchell with a flat tire late Saturday night in Tarrant County, Texas, and were hit by a truck filled with teenagers shortly thereafter. Hollie and Shelby Boyles, Brian Jennings, and Brianna Mitchell died at the scene, and nine other passengers were taken to hospitals in Fort Worth.
Youth pastor Brian Jennings had stopped to help Mitchell, 24, with her SUV on the way home from his son’s graduation party. Shelby Boyles and her mother Hollie lived nearby where Mitchell had pulled over and came over to give assistance as well. Shortly thereafter, a red pickup truck and a Volkswagen collided with one another and with Mitchell and Jennings’ vehicles, killing the good Samaritans and Mitchell at the scene of the accident.
Jennings, who was a father of three, had served the youth at Alsbury Baptist Church in Burleson, Texas for six years. Two children were with him at the time of the accident, but they had stayed inside his vehicle. The 17-year-old driver of the red pickup truck had seven other teenage passengers, and had been ticketed for excessive speeding in the past. No charges have been filed for Saturday night’s accident yet, and the collision is still under investigation.
When asked about his father’s passing, 19-year-old Evan Jennings said that “Though [my father’s] death was a result of the actions and decisions of others, we serve a God of forgiveness and love, and that’s where our hearts are.”
Though he is mourning, Evan is pressing into the Lord in his suffering. “I know that God has a greater plan, and I’m just [going] to focus on Him and stay true and I’ll be able to overcome it,” said the young man of his family’s tragic loss.
