Teen cousins killed in Ward Parkway crash had their hearts set on medical careers

Two teenage cousins, both looking forward to medical careers, went out to see a movie Saturday night and never came home.

Ra’Shad D. Leggs, 17, and Quentin D. Leggs, 19, died from injuries suffered in a collision about 7:15 p.m. at 86th Terrace and Ward Parkway. Ra’Shad Leggs was driving Quentin Leggs’ car north on Ward Parkway when they struck another car that was exiting the shopping center and turning north. The teens’ vehicle then hit the curb, went airborne and struck a tree.

“They cut them both out,” Leisa Leggs, Quentin’s mother, said Monday. “Ra’Shad died on the scene. Quentin had a pulse. They cut him out of the car, as well. There was a witness there that saw the whole accident that held Quentin’s hand and told Quentin to hold on.”

Quentin Leggs died at St. Luke’s Hospital. He had been about to start a job Monday at Children’s Mercy Hospital in his chosen field of physical therapy. Ra’Shad Leggs, who was planning to graduate a year early in May from Ruskin High School, had recently decided he wanted to study to be a pediatrician.

Quentin Leggs had graduated from Ruskin in 2016. The two young men were very close, Leisa Leggs said, like Jonathan and David in the Bible.

“My son was very good,” she said. “He was in church every Sunday. He was just a happy person. The type of person that would make you laugh no matter what you were doing. He was a positive young man.”

Quentin Leggs had planned to go to Lincoln University to study physical therapy before the Children’s Mercy job came up.

“He was very excited about it,” his mom said.

Ra’Shad’s mother, Adrian Leggs, described him as a good boy who had never been in trouble. Trouble found him last year, however, when he was shot during a robbery at The Bay Water Park on Longview Road. Physical injuries to his shoulder, stomach and leg were healing, but Ra’Shad Leggs had psychological aftereffects from the trauma. He sometimes dreamed of being paralyzed.

“He was not sleeping good and had night terrors,” Adrian Leggs said of her son. “He would have panic attacks when he would be around a crowd of people. They could make him nervous. And we know how outgoing he was.”

Still, his mother said, Ra’Shad Leggs was able to keep his grades up in order to graduate high school a year early. He was working at Price Chopper.

“He told me a couple of months ago he wanted to be a doctor,” she said.

Quentin Leggs had spent Saturday with his mother and father, Charles Leggs, doing various errands.

“We came home and I was getting ready to take a nap and he said, ‘Mom, I’m going to go to the movies and to 24 Hour Fitness.’ ”

Leisa Leggs learned about the crash from a family member who heard from the news and from Facebook. She is waiting for a police report.

A police spokeswoman said the intersection at 86th Terrace and Ward Parkway has not been a particular problem spot in the past.

A GoFundMe page has been set up for Quentin and Ra’Shad Leggs.

This story was originally published February 20, 2017 at 5:59 PM with the headline "Teen cousins killed in Ward Parkway crash had their hearts set on medical careers."