JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A woman was killed and a man injured early Thursday morning in a crash in the Lackawanna neighborhood two blocks off Lenox Avenue on Jacksonville's Westside, police said.
Police said a white SUV crashed about 3:30 a.m. a.m. near the intersection of Thompson and Hunt streets. Investigators said a woman somehow became entangled in the passenger side door and was dragged on Thompson Street a short distance outside the vehicle before the crash.
Monique Brown, 29, died at UF Health Jacksonville. The driver was also taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
Police do not know the relationship between the two of them.
Police initially investigated it as a traffic incident, then sent homicide investigators to the scene. Police also were checking to see if there was any connection to a robbery reported in the same area earlier in the morning.
Neighbors told News4Jax this is a high-prostitution area that has gone downhill over the years.
"We call the law every time we come through there, and the cops come out take them to jail," one resident said. "They’re right back down there. It’s like that every day, seven days a week."
Detectives said they do not have any witnesses at this point, but they are looking at surveillance video from the area to try and see if they can figure out what happened just before the crash.