{"id":228665,"date":"2026-05-12T16:02:39","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T16:02:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/228665\/"},"modified":"2026-05-12T16:02:39","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T16:02:39","slug":"college-athlete-killed-in-charlotte-crash-hours-after-graduation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/228665\/","title":{"rendered":"College athlete killed in Charlotte crash hours after graduation"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"text | article-text\">CHARLOTTE, N.C. (WBTV) &#8211; A college athlete died in a Mother\u2019s Day <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wbtv.com\/2026\/05\/12\/bmw-crashes-into-tree-deadly-overnight-south-charlotte-wreck-police-say\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.wbtv.com\/2026\/05\/12\/bmw-crashes-into-tree-deadly-overnight-south-charlotte-wreck-police-say\/\">crash<\/a> in Charlotte, just hours after graduation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Charlotte-Mecklenburg <a href=\"https:\/\/www.charlottenc.gov\/cmpd\/News-Information\/Newsroom\/Fatal-Crash-Investigation-in-the-Providence-Division-05.10.26\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.charlottenc.gov\/cmpd\/News-Information\/Newsroom\/Fatal-Crash-Investigation-in-the-Providence-Division-05.10.26\">police said<\/a> the deadly crash happened around 2:15 a.m. on Sunday, May 10, on Queens Road West near the corner of East Boulevard.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Police said 22-year-old Keegan McKenney was a passenger in a BMW that ran off the right side of the road and hit a tree. Officers said firefighters had to cut three people out of the car. McKenney did not survive.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Police said all people were wearing seatbelts when the crash happened. They said on May 12 that more investigation was needed to determine if speed or impairment was a factor in the crash.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Queens University of Charlotte confirmed on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/DYNcs4MJ8-n\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/DYNcs4MJ8-n\/\">social media<\/a> that McKenney was a member of the school\u2019s swim team.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cWe honor the life of Keegan McKenney &#8212; a cherished teammate, friend, and member of the Queens family whose impact will never be forgotten,\u201d the school posted. \u201cOur thoughts are with all who knew and loved him during this incredibly difficult time.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Queens\u2019 <a href=\"https:\/\/queensathletics.com\/sports\/mens-swimming-and-diving\/roster\/keegan-mckenney\/12703\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/queensathletics.com\/sports\/mens-swimming-and-diving\/roster\/keegan-mckenney\/12703\">roster<\/a> showed that McKenney was from Maine. The roster indicated the college swimmer competed in the individual medley and butterfly events.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">University officials said McKenney had just graduated on May 9 &#8212; less than 24 hours before the deadly crash.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"figure-img img-fluid mx-auto d-block\" alt=\"Keegan McKenney\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/G7Y23AQSMND5JGBDCUHLAP2MVI.png\" width=\"980\" height=\"551\" \/>Keegan McKenney(Queens Athletics)<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Also Read: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wbtv.com\/2026\/05\/08\/teen-arrested-after-high-school-quarterback-killed-home-north-carolina\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.wbtv.com\/2026\/05\/08\/teen-arrested-after-high-school-quarterback-killed-home-north-carolina\/\">Teen arrested after high school quarterback killed in North Carolina<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Copyright 2026 WBTV. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CHARLOTTE, N.C. (WBTV) &#8211; A college athlete died in a Mother\u2019s Day crash in Charlotte, just hours after&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":228666,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[90,12278,89825,89826,2700,4458,12595,2214,47983,4155,89822,70795,40825,89821,50534,89820,44771,15673,89818,35198,16271,89819,3792,12612,9,24,12,1064,63,122,124,123,89824,1761,319,89816,89817,11472,1536,2228,3249,3103,18214,43424,17108,89823],"class_list":["post-228665","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-accident","tag-athlete","tag-blvd","tag-boulevard","tag-car","tag-charlotte","tag-college","tag-crash","tag-crashed","tag-dead","tag-die","tag-died","tag-east","tag-grad","tag-graduate","tag-graduated","tag-graduation","tag-hit","tag-keegan","tag-killed","tag-latest","tag-mckenney","tag-nc","tag-ncaa","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-news","tag-north-carolina","tag-nyc","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news","tag-ran","tag-road","tag-sports","tag-swim","tag-swimmer","tag-swimming","tag-team","tag-tree","tag-university","tag-update","tag-updates","tag-west","tag-wreck","tag-wrecked"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228665","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=228665"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228665\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/228666"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=228665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=228665"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=228665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}