By Matt Zapotosky
Washington Post Staff Writer
The three men were planning a guys’ night in, family members said. Only a few hours earlier, Emmanuel Jones had swung by his nephew’s house with a friend, picked up the hearing-impaired young man whom he had always tried to show a fun time and headed back to his own home in Prince George’s County.
Authorities can’t yet explain what happened next.
Jones’s SUV veered across the center line in the 5600 block of Marlboro Pike in District Heights early Thursday and into oncoming traffic, authorities said. Coming at him was an ambulance — lights and sirens blaring — headed to a call of an overdose.
The ambulance swerved to get out of the way, but the SUV sideswiped it, tearing off one side of the passenger compartment. The SUV then jumped a curb, hit a fence and brick wall, sideswiped a utility poll, and flipped onto its roof 120 feet away from the initial impact. Jones, his nephew and their friend were dead inside, police and family members said.
"It’s just real hard for me right now," said Content Douglas, Jones’s sister and the mother of his nephew. "They’re going to be missed."
Killed in the crash were Jones, 30, of District Heights; Andre Watley, 22, of the District; and Tony Burney, 35, of the District, authorities said. Jones was Watley’s uncle, Douglas said. Burney was Jones’s friend, she said.
No patients were in the ambulance at the time. The two paramedics aboard were taken to a hospital for evaluations but were not seriously hurt, authorities said.
It remains unclear why the SUV crossed into oncoming traffic.
Maj. Andrew Ellis, a spokesman for the Prince George’s County police department, said that the initial investigation indicates excessive speed was not a factor and that there were no immediate indications that alcohol or drugs were involved.
