Six-year-old Ava Campbell gleefully frolicked in the small front lawn of a friend’s home in Shaler after dark on Saturday night, pink and yellow glow sticks in hand, when out of the shadows of the unlit street entered an unforeseen terror into her young life.
Travis Richard Grayson drove just a half-mile from his Millvale home that night, but police say he did it so speedily, recklessly and drunkenly that he ran over Ava and her mother in front of the home, killing the child.
The statement the 20-year-old motorist gave to Shaler police, according to their written criminal complaint, was that he “was driving like a stupid idiot,” at least twice the speed limit in the 25-mph residential zone on Locust Ridge Drive. He admitted to spending the hours earlier Saturday consuming 10 beers and smoking marijuana, the complaint stated.
Shortly after he put more beer into the passenger seat of his Ford Mustang around 10:30 p.m. and headed to a friend’s house nearby, the car veered off the road, nailed a mailbox and swerved across the yard at 97A Locust Ridge before smashing into the little girl, Ava, and her mother, Amber Campbell. The Shaler residents were just leaving a play date there in the section of townhouse duplexes, and the car narrowly missed hitting another daughter with Ms. Campbell.
Ms. Campbell, who was flipped into the air by the impact, tried to tend to her child afterward and declined any medical attention. Neighbor Judy Templin-Williams said she heard a “terrible bang,” and ran out of her front door to find the horrified mother, and Ava, flat on her back and convulsing, glow sticks strewn around her.
Ava suffered severe damage to her lungs and liver and a fractured pelvis. She was pronounced dead at 2:15 a.m. at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC, with an autopsy Sunday listing blunt force trauma as the cause.
Police said that when they showed up, Mr. Grayson had alcohol on his breath, swayed from side to side and slurred his speech. He was charged with homicide by vehicle while driving under the influence and other offenses. A blood alcohol test was administered at Allegheny General Hospital, the results of which were not immediately available.
Witnesses reported to police that Mr. Grayson initially tried to leave the scene until people stopped him. Ms. Templin-Williams said that Mr. Grayson, in panic or self-rancor, called his mother and said “Mom, I just ruined my life.”
A crowd that had gathered there was so “agitated,” according to the police complaint, that once officers arrived, they decided for his own safety not to give him a field sobriety test there. Ms. Templin-Williams said that two police officers had to physically restrain Ava’s father, Dave Campbell, a volunteer firefighter with Bauerstown Volunteer Fire Department, from attacking Mr. Grayson.
According to the complaint, Mr. Grayson told detectives that he had been watching college football much of Saturday at his residence on Lawrence Street, accompanied by his mother and sister.
He said he consumed “a total of 10 Milwaukee Best Beer before he was involved in the accident,” the complaint stated, and he also admitted he had smoked “a bowl of marijuana” at around noon.
Reached by phone Sunday afternoon, his mother, Dawn Grayson, said, “I have nothing to say, thank you.”
Behind the wheel Saturday night, Mr. Grayson “was driving like a stupid idiot” and “drove irresponsibly,” he reportedly told detectives. He estimated to them that he was going 50 to 55 mph when he lost control of the Mustang.
Ms. Campbell told police she heard a car engine roaring and tires squealing.
“She said that she then saw the car swerve into the yard and she remembers being thrown into the air and then hitting the ground,” the police complaint report stated. “She said that she immediately went to her 6-year-old daughter who was injured and bleeding.”
Paramedics arrived and attempted to treat Ava before she was transported to Children’s Hospital.
Mr. Grayson was also charged with involuntary manslaughter; aggravated assault by vehicle while DUI; driving under the influence; three counts of recklessly endangering another person; reckless driving; and careless driving. He was placed in the Allegheny County Jail and faces a preliminary hearing Oct. 8 with Judge Robert P. Dzvonick.
Ava was a first-grader at Marzolf Primary School, where grief counselors will be made available starting today, according to Shaler Area School District spokeswoman Bethany Baker.
“My heart is just so sore,” Ms. Templin-Williams said. “What a sweet little face she had.”
Gary Rotstein: grotstein@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1255. Andrew Goldstein: agoldstein@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1352.
First Published: September 27, 2015, 1:31 p.m.
Updated: September 28, 2015, 3:14 a.m.