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A 21-year-old Northbrook man charged in a Glenview fatal crash that left a high school student dead was ordered to remain detained on Saturday, as court documents revealed troubling details on the moments leading up to the crash.
Taeyoung Kim was arrested Friday evening and was charged with the following crimes, police said:
- Reckless homicide
- Aggravated DUI causing death, aggravated DUI causing great bodily harm and reckless driving
- DUI, speeding and DUI with a blood alcohol concentration over .08
- DUI involving drugs, improper lane usage and failure to reduce speed to avoid an accident
The 21-year-old appeared at a bond court hearing on Saturday, where he was ordered to remain in custody.
According to court documents, Kim’s vehicle was equipped with a dashcam, which initially showed him driving his 2021 Ford Mustang alongside one of his friends, who was a passenger in the vehicle.
Kim’s dashcam initially captured his vehicle at around 8 p.m. Sunday driving near his home and later into downtown Chicago, court documents said.
According to the bond court proffer, Kim’s dashcam captured the vehicle running a red light on Roosevelt Road just before 11 p.m. before driving at a high rate of speed down Ida B. Wells Drive, passing numerous vehicles before making a u-turn.
From there, Kim’s vehicle merged onto I-90/94 westbound and continued to drive at a high rate of speed, passing numerous vehicles, according to court documents.
Kim’s vehicle then merged onto I-94 at the I-90/94 split and continued driving on the Edens Expressway until 11:06 p.m., when Kim’s vehicle exited at Lake Avenue in Glenview, court documents revealed.
At this time, Kim continued to drive westbound on Lake Avenue and passed another driver traveling in the same direction. According to court documents, that driver observed Kim’s vehicle increase its speed and turn off its headlights.
According to the proffer, Kim continued towards the intersection of Lake Avenue and Meadow Lane, where the victims were in their vehicle at the intersection.
The vehicle was driven by 17-year-old Marko Niketic, who was accompanied by his 16-year-old girlfriend, who was in the passenger seat, court documents said.
According to the proffer, Niketic activated his left turn signal at this time and proceeded into the intersection to turn onto Lake Avenue, actions that were captured on a private surveillance camera.
As Niketic began turning, Kim’s vehicle approached the intersection at an immense rate of speed, still with the headlights off. Just as Kim was entering the intersection, the headlights turned back on as Kim’s vehicle crashed into Niketic’s vehicle, court documents said.
Prosecutors said the dashcam captured Kim’s vehicle entering the intersection before going black.
The front of Kim’s vehicle struck the driver’s side of Niketic’s car at 122 miles per hour, causing Niketic’s vehicle to split in half, court documents said.
The front half of Niketic’s vehicle remained in the roadway, while the back half broke through a fence and entered a nearby backyard, court documents revealed.
According to the proffer, numerous nearby residents heard the impact of the crash and immediately called 911. Witnesses who arrived at the scene in the immediate aftermath observed Niketic in his vehicle, appearing to be deceased.
Niketic’s girlfriend sustained serious injuries in the crash, including a subarachnoid hemorrhage, hematoma of the brain, a fracture of the pelvis vertebrae and hyper-density of the left frontal lobe of the brain with loss of consciousness and seizure. According to court documents, she was released from the hospital on Friday.
The proffer said at least two witnesses saw Kim sitting in the driver’s seat of the Mustang, when he told a witness his first name and admitted he had been drinking. Kim’s passenger was seen lying on the ground bleeding heavily at this time.
Following a response from police and paramedics, Niketic was pronounced dead at the scene, while both Kim and his passenger were hospitalized along, with Niketic’s girlfriend.
Kim’s passenger sustained a fracture to his back and a severed artery in the crash and made statements on body-worn camera identifying Kim as the driver of the Mustang, court documents stated.
Kim sustained a broken femur in the crash and later had his blood drawn while receiving medical care, which confirmed a .088 blood alcohol level, above the legal limit. The blood also showed cannabis in his system, court documents revealed.
When Kim’s Mustang was searched, the vehicle’s speedometer needle was stuck at 120 miles per hour, the vehicle’s maximum listed speed, according to court documents.
Officers discovered a bong, rolling papers, a one-hitter cannabis pipe with residue and two plastic containers with cannabis residue inside his vehicle, the proffer revealed.
According to the bond court proffer, a search warrant was executed on the vehicle’s black box, which showed Kim’s vehicle traveling at 131 miles per hour just 2.5 seconds before the impact, with the recorded speed at the time of the impact being 122 miles per hour. The listed speed limit on Lake Avenue at that location is 35 miles per hour.
Kim had a valid driver’s license at the time of the incident and has no criminal history outside of two petty traffic offenses in Lake County from 2021 – one being issued for speeding and the other for disregarding a traffic control device. Kim received supervision for both offenses.
According to Glenbrook South High School, the crash occurred just days before Marko’s senior prom and three weeks before graduation.
Throughout the week, groups of emotional family and friends visited the crash site, many placing candles, photos and bouquets of flowers at the scene.
“He’s one of those people, you meet him, and he’s glowing. The most genuine human ever,” friend Preston Shute said, holding back tears. “He had a lot of stuff ahead of him. I can’t really process it.”
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