The Shoreline Weekly · Thursday, November 9, 2017 · Vol. 41 · No. 45
Transcript
Shorecrest High School held a memorial last week for Sherice Smith, a 17-year-old junior who died on October 28 after being struck by a vehicle while walking home from the school's home football game the night before.
More than four hundred students, parents and staff gathered in the gymnasium. The school's cheer squad sat together in the front rows. Many in the crowd wore school colors.
Smith was found on NE 153rd Street shortly before eleven o'clock on the night of October 27 by a driver who stopped and called 911. She was transported to Harborview Medical Center and died the following morning.
The vehicle that struck her did not stop. King County Sheriff's detectives said this week that they are treating the collision as a vehicular homicide, and that they have not identified the driver or the car. They asked anyone who was in the area between 10:30 and 11:00 p.m. on October 27 to contact them.
Smith had cheered at the game that night, a home game against Mountlake Terrace. She lived within walking distance of the school and had walked home from games before, her family said.
"She'd done it a hundred times," said her father, Wilson Smith. "It's a short walk. You don't think about it."
Principal Dana Chandler told those gathered that Smith had been at Shorecrest since her freshman year and was known across the building. "She was a wonderful student and a joy to be around," Chandler said. "Sherice made this school a brighter place."
Teammates said she was the heart and soul of the squad. Several said she had been talking that week about where she wanted to go to college.
The Shorecrest football team wore her initials on their helmets in last week's game. The team's head coach said the vote was unanimous.
Her mother, Mary Smith, spoke briefly at the end of the service and addressed the driver directly.
"I know my baby is in heaven now, looking down on us," she said. "And whoever did this — we are never going to get her back. But we need to know. Please come forward, for our family's sake."
The family has asked that remembrances be directed to the Shorecrest cheer program.
Anyone with information about the collision is asked to contact the King County Sheriff's Office.