Santa Rosa man, 21, injured in chain-reaction crash dies

A Santa Rosa man who was critically injured in a collision in early September died in the hospital Wednesday night after his family took him off life support.

Jeremiah Tyler Lippincott, who family said sometimes went by the name Jeremiah Herrera, was in the front passenger seat of a BMW that police said was fleeing the scene of a minor crash and smashed into a pickup about 500 feet away.

The crash occurred Sept. 2, according to the Santa Rosa Police Department. Lippincott, 21, was taken to Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital in critical condition.

Another passenger, a 16-year-old girl, was flown to an Oakland hospital in serious condition, said police spokesperson Sgt. Chris Mahurin.

The 16-year-old driver was also hospitalized in serious condition in Davis. Authorities had not determined whether he was intoxicated, and an investigation into the hit-and-run was continuing, Mahurin said.

The girl and the driver were still hospitalized as of Monday.

According to Lippincott’s mother, Veronica Castro, he had been unconscious for 12 days since the collision, and doctors did not expect him to wake up.

He was pulled off life support on Tuesday around 1:30 a.m. and died Wednesday around 11:30 p.m., after loved ones had said their goodbyes, Castro said.

“The choice to disconnect life support was not easy but I made this decision with Jeremiah's best interests at heart,” Castro wrote in her GoFundMe campaign raising donations for her son’s funeral expenses.

“Right now, all I want to do is the right thing for Jeremiah,” she said. “That’s my only consolation, is he’ll be at peace.”

Lippincott’s doctors said it was unlikely he would have ever regained consciousness, Castro said. If he did, he would not have been able to live independently, they told her.

“My kid, after the hard life he's had, no way is he going to want that,” Castro said.

Castro adopted Lippincott and his brother Joshua in 2007, after they had bounced from home to home and then placed for adoption twice.

Growing up, Lippincott was “a clown, a joker,” and an aspiring singer and rapper. He had run into trouble a few times but in recent years was focused on working multiple jobs to support his year-old son. His goal was to move out of Castro’s house, where he had been living since July, she said.

She said that while she has been criticized for her decision to withdraw life support, she believed she made the best choice for her son. Castro said she did not blame anyone for the crash.

According to police, the BMW was heading east on Sebastopol Road when it was involved in a minor collision at Stony Point Road.

At that point, said Mahurin, the BMW accelerated to “an estimated 60 to 70 miles per hour,” in a 30 mph zone, then broadsided the pickup, which had been traveling west and was making a left turn onto Burbank Avenue.

Police were investigating whether the BMW’s driver ran a red light at Burbank and Sebastopol Road.

Police were also still waiting on toxicology reports to determine whether drugs or alcohol were factors in the crash.

You can reach Staff Writer Emily Wilder at 602-736-5270 or emily.wilder@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @vv1lder.