Four siblings killed in fiery New York parkway crash had long history of panhandling, angry relatives tell The News (EXCLUSIVE)
The four siblings killed in a fiery New York parkway crash along with their unlicensed teenage cousin had a long history of panhandling across at least three states, heartbroken angry relatives and neighbors tell the Daily News.
Investigators suspect, in fact, they were out begging the day they died. They have recovered surveillance footage that appears to show the children panhandling at a New Jersey mall hours before the March 19 crash, according to local reports. In their hunt for handouts, the young siblings ranging in age from 8 to 17 found themselves alone far from home on a winding road to their polyamorous parents’ house in Derby, Conn., with their cousin behind the wheel.
“They were sent up to New Jersey that day to panhandle ... That’s why they were so far away,” one relative told the Daily News, breaking down in tears.
Relatives who spoke to The News, who asked not to be named for fear of angering the victims’ parents during a difficult time, painted a haunting picture of an unconventional family where the children didn’t go to school, their father and his “two wives” lived together under one roof, and the kids spent time panhandling.
“I’m so mad. I’m so angry. I hope they’re somewhere in the afterlife getting better treatment than they did on Earth,” the relative said.
There were warning signs of trouble before the crash. Authorities had been involved with the family as long as nine months ago when cops and child welfare were alerted after the kids were spotted begging in a Connecticut shopping plaza, a police report obtained by The News shows.
Child welfare agents had already met with family members, including several of the children who perished, weeks before the crash “based on an alleged incident that occurred in New York,” officials previously said.
After interviewing several of the children, no further actions was deemed necessary.
A fiery crash
Authorities said 16-year-old Malik Smith, who didn’t even have a learner’s permit, was at the wheel of the rented 2021 Nissan Rogue with no adult on board when he failed to navigate a curve of the Hutchinson River Parkway just north of the Mamaroneck Road exit at about 12:20 a.m.
The doomed SUV hit a boulder and struck a tree before bursting into flames. Cops believe an exhausted Malik likely fell asleep.
Malik died in the crash along with his cousins: Anthony Billips Jr., 17, Zahnyiah Cross, 12, Shawnell Cross, 11, and Andrew Billips, 8. A lone survivor, 9-year old Abraham Billips, managed to escape through the broken lift gate glass.
While Malik lived in Brooklyn, all the other kids are siblings who lived under the same roof in Derby, where they were being raised by Anthony Billips Sr. and two moms.
Until recently, Billips Sr. lived with wife Natazia Benjamin-Billips, the mother of several of the doomed children, in Brooklyn’s East New York neighborhood.
But in recent years he also fell for Da’Shawna Cross, who lived in Waterbury, Conn., with her own kids who died in the crash, relatives said.
About nine months ago the two mothers and Billips Sr. all relocated with their kids to a house in Derby to live together, with Billips now stepfather to Cross’ children.
“That’s when everything went downhill,” one relative said. “Their living quarters were cramped ... The house was filthy.
In a now-deleted Facebook post mourning his children, Billips Sr. calls both mothers his “wives.” In what he called “the most painful post I ever had to write in my life” he lamented losing “our precious kids in a fatal car accident.”
In happier times, a visibly pregnant Cross posed in front of a Christmas tree with Billips and Benjamin-Billips, who both have a hand on her stomach as they smile for the camera in a 2021 Facebook post.
The News spoke to relatives of Billips and the two mothers.
“They were making ends meet by making the children work,” one relative said. “They were sending the kids out to surrounding areas.”
A News reporter knocked on the Billips family’s door in Derby this week to ask them about allegations of the children panhandling unsupervised and not attending school. The parents declined to comment.
Panhandling in N.J., Connecticut
Investigators have obtained surveillance video from a New Jersey shopping center hours before the crash showing the children interacting with people in a way that suggests they were panhandling, CBS New York was first to report.
Westchester cops did not return requests for comment from the Daily News about the report.
A police report obtained by The News from cops in Milford, Conn., reveals underage members of the family were left alone to beg for money last August.
Local cops responded to a parking lot on Boston Post Road on a report of children asking people for money and food. There they encountered four juveniles and 17-year-old Billips Jr., all carrying clipboards and flyers claiming they were raising money for a basketball team.
According to the police report, Billips Jr. was “extremely guarded” and offered conflicting information regarding his age. When cops reached his father Anthony Sr. by phone he said he was unable to pick them up, saying his kids had planned to take the bus when they finished fundraising for their team.
When cops reached the children’s mother, Benjamin-Billips, she said she would send a Lyft for them, the report states. But cops were unwilling to release the kids unsupervised and instead took them to Milford Police Headquarters where a child welfare worker interviewed them. The worker also interviewed Benjamin-Billips when she eventually arrived to pick up the kids, noting the agency would be in touch to follow up.
“My heart’s broken”
None of the Derby children involved in the crash were enrolled in school there, according to Derby Superintendent Matthew Conway.
“They pulled them out of school,” a relative told The News. “A grandmother had questioned them about it but they assured her that they were homeschooling the children.”
“My heart’s broken in many pieces,” a second relative told The News. “I didn’t find out they were not in school until just recently.”
“I just want justice for those kids,” one said through tears.
Former neighbors in East New York say the panhandling had been going on for years.
“Outside. Around the neighborhood, by the trains,” said a Brooklyn neighbor who knows the family and asked that her name not be used. ”It’s been since they were young.”
The neighbor said she was left heartbroken when she encountered one of the kids’ cousins in the street begging.
“He said, ‘I just really am hungry, if you could just give me a dollar to buy something to eat,’” she recalled. But the boy became embarrassed when he realized she knew his family.
“He went to walk away,” she said. “And I was like ‘No, if you need money, I’m gonna give it to you.’ I gave him money. Like two dollars. He was so skinny. I definitely believed him because he was so skinny.”
Neighbors in Connecticut also saw children from the family begging in recent years.
“There was two of them that stood in that intersection and stopped cars, bumming for money,” said Edward Randall, 78, who lived across the street from members of the family during the time they lived in Waterbury. “They stopped me a couple times. They said they were bumming money for basketball. They had papers but there was nothing written on them.”
“They used to ask for money for basketball,” said another Waterbury neighbor who asked that her name not be used. “One time they knocked on my door and asked and my mom gave them money. My mom kind of didn’t think it was legit but she knew that they were going through something so she helped them.”
The relative said the new details prompted a call to Connecticut’s Department of Children and Families.
Neighbors in East New York told The News ACS workers knocked on their doors multiple times in the months before the crash.
“There was nothing learned in the interviews which warranted further Connecticut DCF involvement,” DCF Commissioner Vannessa Dorantes said in a statement after the crash.
But relatives said the agency obviously missed something.
“I alerted DCF when I found out about the situation,” said the relative who placed a call after the children died. “I tried to call the detective and left a voicemail giving them a brief rundown of what I know.”
A DCF spokesman did not reply to a request for comment on the new revelations about the family.
A GoFundMe created by the Derby parents to raise money “to help bury our children” has taken in $67,557 in donations.
With Kerry Burke
