Keith BieryGolick

kbierygolick@enquirer.com

They couldn’t see the crash. At first, all they saw was a black cloud of smoke.

Then they saw something they wished they hadn’t.

Justin Weigandt and his family were traveling through Cincinnati on their way home to Michigan when they came across three mangled cars along the northbound lanes of Interstate 75, near mile marker 13.2.

Inside one of the cars, an Audi A8, the engine had been slammed into the lap of 61-year-old Nazih Shteiwi and his wife, 55-year-old Halla Odeh Shteiwi, both of whom were identified by police Friday.

It was about 3:30 a.m. on Friday. They were trapped.

Weigandt’s wife called 911 while he and his brother tried to pull them out of the car. They couldn’t.

"It looks pretty bad," she told police dispatchers. "There is people injured everywhere."

Less than a minute before the crash, police received a 911 call about an SUV driving the wrong way on I-75.

The description given to police matched the totaled SUV on the highway, which was a Chevy Suburban driven by 30-year-old Kory Wilson of Springfield Township, police said. Wilson was stretched out between the seats facing the rear window. Weigandt saw a gun on the driver’s seat. Wilson's feet touched the dashboard radio, and his hands covered his face.

“It was like he was trying to crawl out,” Weigandt said.

The police arrived and checked the man’s pulse. He had none.

Evendale police said Wilson and the Shteiwis died at the scene.

Wilson was known locally as a rapper, and performed under the stage name "Kalyko," according to his Facebook page and NerveDCMixtapes.com.

Dozens of posts containing kind remarks and condolences were made on Wilson's personal Facebook page Friday – many of them referenced his rap career. He did a show at Bogart's Feb. 25, according to CincyMusic.com.

One other person, 36-year-old James Gist, of Hamilton, was taken to Mercy Fairfield with injuries not considered life-threatening, police said.

The northbound lanes of I-75 were shut down until about 8:45 a.m.

“I’ve never seen anything like that in my life,” Weigandt said.

Weigandt and his family – 11 people total – had just finished a vacation in Florida. They were traveling home together in an RV. There were seven children in the vehicle, ranging from 3 months old to 15 years old.

About 50 miles before Cincinnati, the family stopped to get gas. After filling up, they prepared to leave when Weigandt’s brother stopped them to wash the RV's windows.

“That’s all we’ve been thinking about. We were just seconds behind (the crash). That could have been us,” Weigandt said. “I just feel for the families.”