Driver who forced Bay High teens to crash taken into custody, authorities confirm
Brookhaven police and Lincoln County sheriff’s deputies on Thursday took the driver of the red Kia that ran a car off the road on Interstate 10 in Harrison into a canal, where three teenagers inside could have drowned.
The driver, identified as Jakiyah Monyei Brooks, 19, of Brookhaven, kept going, driving eastbound to the Menge Avenue exit, witnesses said.
Two passersby stopped and rescued the teens from a Chevrolet Impala as it took on water.
Now, Brooks has been taken into custody and is being held in the Lincoln County jail on a hold out of Harrison County for four misdemeanor crimes: reckless driving, leaving the scene of an accident, unsafe lane change and no proof of insurance.
The arrest came after the mother of three teenagers, Marie Garside, reached out to the Harrison County Sheriff’s Department to check on getting the out-of-town agencies to make the arrest.
“It’s just a relief that we are finally getting some form of justice for our family,” said Garside, mother of the three teens injured in the March 6 crash. “I don’t wish ill on anyone but to completely uproot our life and cause that sort of chaos and to go on living life as if nothing happened bothered me.”
Garside commended the Harrison County Sheriff’s Department for taking action.
“We are just glad that Harrison County Sheriff’s Department has taken this seriously and worked with us to make this happen, as well as Brookhaven police,” Garside said.
The Mississippi Highway Patrol and the Harrison County Sheriff’s Department investigated the crash that plunged driver Mariah Gill, 18, and her two younger teenage brothers into the canal after they had gotten out of school at Bay High in Bay St. Louis.
Mariah Gill had to have surgery on her knee, which is still healing, while one of her brothers had a fractured eye socket and the other suffered a cut to his thigh.
A more serious felony charge of leaving the scene of an accident causing personal injury or death would have applied if Gill or her brothers had been mutilated, permanently disabled or killed in the crash.
“I don’t understand it,” Garside said. “Because the kids are alive, you can’t charge someone with a felony.” We just have to pick up and bring them back here.
Before a doctor’s appointment for her knee on Tuesday, Gill and her mom headed to Justice Court in Gulfport. There, Gill signed affidavits against the driver for the four offenses.
A judge later signed off on the warrant to make the arrest.
In the aftermath of the crash, Garside rode along Menge Avenue, spotting cameras and gave their locations to investigators who were able to identify the Kia. They gave her information from their investigation so that charges could be filed.
That information included an interview with Brooks, who denied knowing that she had hit anything more than a traffic cone. She claimed that she stopped at the exit to check her car, but the trooper told her their investigation showed she did not stop.
Instead, Trooper Adam Dedeaux told the driver, they knew she had headed south to Pass Christian.
Brooks claimed she was driving to the home of a friend who lives just north of Interstate 10 in Gulfport.
Dedeaux, who investigated the crash, told Brooks he already knew what happened.
“We just wanted to see if you’re going to tell the truth or lie,” he said. “So let me tell you this, and maybe it’ll make you open up some more. You’re lucky nobody died . . .”
The trooper went on to explain to Brooks that more serious injuries or death could have led to a felony charge and up to 20 years in prison.
The trooper also told Brooks that investigators had social media videos of her and her mother using their phones while driving.
This story was originally published April 23, 2026 at 5:17 PM.
