'We forgive her,' victim's sister says of driver in Windsor Hill crash

LOS ANGELES, CA - AUGUST 04: Members of the Los Angeles County Fire Department, CHP and other officials investigate a fiery crash where multiple people were killed near a Windsor Hills gas station at the intersection of West Slauson and South La Brea avenues on Thursday, Aug. 4, 2022 in Los Angeles, CA. (Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)
California Highway Patrol officers and other first responders at the intersection of Slauson and La Brea, scene of a fatal multi-car crash, on Thursday. (Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)

The sister of a woman killed in a multi-car crash last week has offered words of forgiveness for the driver held responsible for the collision.

Investigators arrested Nicole Lorraine Linton, 37, a registered nurse, in connection with Thursday's high-speed crash in Windsor Hills, which left five people dead. Asherey Ryan, a 23-year-old pregnant woman, was among the victims, along with her 1-year-old son and boyfriend. Only Ryan has officially been identified by the coroner.

“I just want to tell her that we forgive her,” Sha’seana Kerr, Ryan’s sister, told KTLA on Saturday while gathered with family and friends at the crash site. “She will have to live with this for the rest of her life. That’s why she was spared. We understand it already.”

On Thursday afternoon, Linton was going as fast as 100 mph in a Mercedes-Benz when she ran a red light, hitting several vehicles and causing some of them to erupt in flames, according to the California Highway Patrol.

Family members, friends and strangers have have left flowers at the site.

Kerr, one of Ryan’s younger sisters, said Ryan was her “first best friend.” The pain of losing their family members felt worse, she said, as it sank in that they were gone.

“The first person I knew. The first person I probably had a conversation with,” she said. “She’s my only big sister. Every day we take our sons outside and we walk them around the block. Every day. The neighbors know us. Today, I had to take that walk alone with my son.”

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.