Rashee Rice, a wide receiver for the Kansas City Chiefs of the National Football League, is facing a $1 million lawsuit filed by two people who were injured in a car crash that he caused in Dallas late last month.
Rice, along with Teddy Knox — a cornerback at nearby SMU, where Rice attended college — are facing a lawsuit from Irina Gromova and Edvard Petrovskiy. Their lawyers filed the suit last Thursday in Dallas County.
The pair were driving in a 2022 Lexus 350 SUV when they were struck by two vehicles driven at high rates of speed by Knox and Rice. An affidavit that the Dallas Morning News obtained showed that Rice was believed to be driving a Lamborghini Urus at 119 mph only a few seconds before the crash happened on March 30.
Knox is alleged to have been driving a Chevrolet Corvette at 116 mph, though he “slowed down” to about 91 mph one second before the crash happened. Reports say that Rice owns the Lamborghini and was renting the Corvette.
According to the lawsuit, Gromova and Petrovskiy were “severely injured by the tremendous force of the high-speed impact.”
The lawsuit also pointed out a vital fact in the case — that Knox, Rice and some of of the other passengers in their vehicles who were involved in the crash fled the scene of the crash without offering any support to the people who were clearly injured.
As the lawsuit says:
“Despite innocent victims calling for emergency help and desperately trying to exit their destroyed vehicles in a state of shock, Defendants intentionally, knowingly evaded assisting injured commuters and absconded from the scene.”
According to the lawsuit, the victims suffered bruises, internal bleeding, lacerations on their faces that required stitches, brain trauma and other injuries.
Gromova and Petrovskiy are seeking financial damages for physical pain and suffering, property damage, mental anguish, medical care and more.
Last Thursday, Rice, who is 23 years old, turned himself into the Glenn Heights Police Department. He is facing criminal charges including aggravated assault (one count), collision involving serious bodily injury (one count) and collision involving injury (six counts).
Knox, who is a sophomore at SMU, turned himself into authorities on Friday. He’s facing the identical charges to Rice. In the meantime, he’s been suspended by the SMU football team, though no further comments were made.
Rice took full responsibility for his role in the incident last week when he issued an apology.
As he wrote:
“I take full responsibility for my part in this matter and will continue to cooperate with the necessary authorities. I sincerely apologize to everyone impacted in Saturday’s accident.”
To this point, neither the Kansas City Chiefs or the NFL have taken any disciplinary action against Rice as of yet. It’s certainly possible that he could face a suspension or some other disciplinary action for his role in the accident, regardless of whether he’s found guilty of any criminal charges.
