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Brevard Fireworks Joy Ride Turns Fatal
2004 Darwin Award Candidates
By Amy C. Rippel and Laurin Sellers
Orlando Sentinel
June 30, 2004

Artavis Walker and Antonio Robinson of Melbourne were the best of friends since they were boys, and with $500 in fireworks in the back seat of their car, they set out to have some fun.

As they cruised down Carver Street on Monday night, they tossed lighted fireworks from the car.

But the fun turned deadly when a spark from a cigarette or one of the fireworks apparently ignited the entire collection of bottle-rocket- and M-80-type fireworks, setting their Toyota Corolla ablaze, authorities said.

Robinson, 27, was able to jump from the car a few blocks before it crashed into a light pole at Walker Street.

But Walker, 23, who was driving, couldn't escape until after the crash. He suffered burns on 90 percent of his body and died at Orlando Regional Medical Center on Tuesday morning.

"He [Walker] was on fire while he was running," said Assistant Fire Chief Greg Anglin of the Melbourne Fire Department. "Somebody had to tackle him and hose him down."

A passer-by had taken Robinson to Holmes Regional Medical Center in Melbourne but he was later transferred to ORMC, where he is in critical but stable condition. He was burned on 40 to 50 percent of his body, Melbourne police Sgt. Sean Riordan said.

When firefighters and police arrived at the scene, the car was engulfed in flames and fireworks were still shooting from it.

Before Walker was taken to the hospital by ambulance, police say, one of his first thoughts was of his friend.

"He told the officer, 'The other guy is burned worse than I am,' " Riordan said.

But while Robinson's mother was sitting by her son's bedside Tuesday at the hospital, Walker's family was making funeral arrangements.

Yashica Walker said her brother was a fun-loving guy who took pride in himself. He always looked "clean and sharp," she said. He has five sisters, including a twin, and four brothers.

"They were having fun. It was a freak accident," she said.

Walker, called "Tay-Tay" by friends and family, loved to entertain his nieces, nephews and his 2-year-old daughter, Tamya. The fireworks would have done the trick for the upcoming Independence Day holiday, his sister said.

The only thing left of the car was the metal shell, though investigators found remnants of the fireworks inside, Anglin said.

"They didn't look like the typical kind of fireworks you buy from a fireworks stand," he said. "These were larger fireworks, something like M-80s."

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