LAGRANGE, Ga. — Editor's note: On June 2, the Georgia State Patrol released a final crash report, which 11Alive obtained Sept. 20. According to the updated findings, Rico Dunn, 24, improperly crossed the double-yellow line on GA-Hwy 109 to pass another vehicle, hitting Jacob Brown, 19, head-on. The crash killed both drivers, and Brown's passenger, Stephen Bartolotta, 18.
Read the full story here. Original story appears below.
No one in Rico Dunn’s family loved to laugh more than he did. Dunn’s family said he knew that it was his laughter and uplifting spirit that infused joy into everyone around him.
The 24-year-old was killed over the weekend while driving home from a family gathering; another driver going the other way crossed into Dunn’s lane and struck him, head-on, according to the Georgia State Patrol.
Both drivers were killed, along with the other driver’s passenger.
Dunn’s family, who called him “ManMan,” rushed to the scene of the crash Saturday night on Georgia Highway 109—Roanoke Road—just west of LaGrange.
Sharon Hixson bent down and tried to talk with Dunn.
"To let him know I was there," she said. He was breathing, but he could not speak.
“And when I seen him laying there," Hixson said Monday as she wept, "I knew I wasn't going to have another ManMan."
Hixson and her daughter, 20-year-old Bianca Ligon, who is Dunn’s cousin, were as close to him as mother and sister.
On Saturday their big and close family had all been together at a nearby lake all day, celebrating a family birthday. And that night, they drove home in separate cars.
Dunn was a few minutes ahead of his sister.
She drove up on the wreckage and immediately called 911 and members of the family. Everyone turned back around to meet her and be with Dunn while first responders prepared to transport him to the nearest trauma center.
The driver who had struck Dunn head-on was, according to the GSP, a 19-year-old LaGrange College student, Jacob Brown. The GSP said Brown was driving in the other direction, and crossed into Dunn’s lane while Brown was passing a car-- despite being in a no-passing zone -- and crossed over the center, double-yellow "rumble strip."
Brown was killed instantly, along his with his passenger, a friend and teammate on the LaGrange College baseball team, 18-year-old Stephen Bartolotta.
Dunn died later at the hospital.
“I know he doesn’t want me crying," Hixson said, "'cause I can see him smiling.”
Hixson and Ligon talked Monday of how Dunn was self-employed, fixing homes, making a good living as a handyman, "an entrepreneur," helping his family and friends, with a smile, whenever they called on him for help.
His dream was to enlist in the U.S. Navy.
Hixson and Ligon said they are sure that Dunn is trying to comfort them now, as if telling them not to cry, but to hold on to the joy they all had together.
“Real loving, caring. Very protective,” Ligon said. “And would do anything for anybody. Loved the outside--water, fishing--loved family, especially his nieces and nephews. Babies, period. Why? That was just him.”
They went back to the crash site Monday evening, trying to recover a few more of Dunn’s belongings. They found his fishing pole and other personal items which are all keepsakes to them, now.
They know that earlier on Saturday, Brown and Bartolotta were celebrating with the rest of the LaGrange baseball team, when, playing at home, they won the best-of-three series with North Carolina Wesleyan, a victory that would put LaGrange into the upcoming NCAA Division III Tournament.
Hixson and Ligon said they hurt for the families and teammates of Brown and Bartolotta, too.
“Everybody's hurting,” Ligon said. “I really do hurt for them, I feel for them too. Especially with them being only 18, 19 years old. They’re still kids.”
Ligon said she and Dunn always had a special bond; Dunn always called her his “Twin." The two would talk about anything and everything.
Ligon thought back on that Saturday, and said it was unusual that Dunn seemed down during the family gathering.
“That day, he just wasn't himself, you know?” Ligon said. “It wasn’t the Rico I knew. So I just knew it was something on him. Like he was so distant from people. He was out in the water, by himself, by the water a whole hour. And people were expecting me to talk to him because we deal with each other every day. I'm the only one that can really get him to talk. I just felt like maybe he wanted to be alone. So I just tried to let him have peace. And before it all happened, when he was leaving, part of me wanted to just get in the car and just ride with him because I'm normally always with him. But something just told me not to get in the car."
She said she still thinks about that moment.
"For a minute I was just blaming myself because I felt like maybe I could have prevented this from happening. But at the end of the day, I don't, I don't know,” she said.
They said all they can do is to hold tight to the joy Dunn always gave them, certain that it is enough, and will, somehow, last their lifetimes, now.
Visitation and funeral arrangements have been made with details found below.
Visitation:
Wednesday, May 18, 2022
6:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m.
Lakes-Dunson-Robertson Funeral Home
100 Corporate Plaza Drive | LaGrange, GA
Funeral:
Thursday, May 19, 2022
1:00 p.m.
City Light Church
501 4th Avenue | LaGrange, GA
