Hard life of Tina's family: They were refugees, lived in collective housing, she died near her home

Tina Tintor, a 23-year-old girl of Serbian descent, was killed on November 2 in a horrific car accident in Las Vegas, when her vehicle was hit at a speed of more than 250 kilometers per hour by NFL player Henry Ruggs of the Las Vegas Raiders, who fired him after the accident he caused.

Stevan K. from Topola, Serbia, Tina's uncle, was in complete shock when his family from America told him what had happened.

"They called me yesterday. It's shocking to me. I froze. The very way it all happened is horrific. She burned with her dog stuck in the car. With his expensive car, visibly intoxicated, driving at a terribly high speed, a man who, if I understood correctly, is an NFL star hit her car," Stevan told Telegraf.rs.

Tina's family is broken. They were looking for her, not knowing that she had lost her life only two or three intersections away from her home.

"She went to see her girlfriend and to walk the dog. On her way back, that athlete hit her care three blocks away from her apartment. Her mother realized that she was not home and called the grandmother to check if she was there, since she had gone in that direction, but she wasn't. That's why they went to the police to report her missing. There, they were told about a terrible traffic accident that resulted in deaths, not knowing yet that it was her. Later, the police came and told them exactly what happened," Stevan explains.

He said that Tina was about two or three years old when her family moved to the United States.

"I know her as a small child. Her grandmother and my father are siblings. The whole family has a very difficult life story, and now this has happened to them. They are a Serb family that fled Croatia during the war. They spent some time in Kosovo, and in 1999 they fled to the village of Jarmenovci near Topola. They lived in collective accommodation. When they got an immigrant visa, about 20 years ago, they moved to Las Vegas. Tina was there with her parents, a brother, a grandmother, a grandfather, an uncle and two aunts," he explains.

According to the local police, at the time of the collision between a Chevrolet Corvette and a Toyota, her dog was in the car with Tina.

The athlete hit the young woman's car at a speed of more than 250 kilometers per hour in a 60 kilometers per hour lane. At the time, Ruggs' blood alcohol content was twice what the state of Nevada allows.

According to US media, passers-by repeatedly and unsuccessfully tried to help the girl who was stuck in the car. According to eyewitnesses, the car soon caught on fire, and the girl and her pet burned stuck inside. They say that Tina was still alive when the vehicle started to burn.

Ruggs' girlfriend Kiara Washington was in his car, and, according to the police, suffered serious injuries.

(Telegraf.rs)