Agoura Hills, CA : Two people were killed after their vehicle collided with a big rig truck at Highway 101 On Tuesday, June 28th, 2016

A budding professional pool player and his brother were killed after their vehicle collided with a big rig truck on Highway 101 in Agoura Hills early Tuesday, officials and a family friend said.

The deceased were identified as Brendan Crockett, 21, the driver, and Jeff Crockett, 24, his passenger, both of Woodland Hills, according to the family friend, Mark Wilson, and the California Highway Patrol.

Brendan, a graduate of Oaks Christian Middle School in Westlake Village, was an up and coming professional pool player who was coached in 2013 by Wilson at Lindenwood University in Missouri. Locally, Brendan was a

regular at Butera’s Billiards in Moorpark and competed in the prestigious U.S. Open in Virginia before age 14.

“It’s a loss for everyone,” said Wilson, who was informed of the deaths by the brothers’ father, Bill. “This kid (Brendan) was really going to make something of himself. I had nothing but the highest regard for him. He was the

epitome of everything I would want in my own son.”

Wilson said Brendan planned to go back to Lindenwood in the fall.

The California Highway Patrol said the crash was reported about 12:15 a.m. Tuesday on southbound Highway 101 near Chesebro Road. The brothers’ vehicle collided with the big rig traveling in the same direction, the CHP

said.

When officers arrived, the brothers’ car was fully engulfed in flames, trapped under the rear of the truck’s trailer, the CHP said.

The brothers were inside the vehicle and were pronounced dead at the scene. The driver of the truck, a Ventura resident, was uninjured.

The cause of the crash is under investigation.

Brendan got the pool bug at about age 10 after his mother bought the family a coffee table-sized pool table for Christmas. Before long, he was spending about four hours a day developing his skills.

“I noticed I was pretty good watching people on the Internet play,” he told The Star in 2009. “I was like, ‘Wow, I could probably beat them. But I didn’t think I would be this good this fast.’ ”

Butera’s owner Sal Butera said he considered Brendan a prodigy when he was a teen.

“His talent — when you gave him something, he ran with it,” he said. “There’s a lot of kids who play real well, but when other guys played him, they were like, ‘you know? There’s something about him.”

Butera said an informal wake was held at the pool hall Tuesday night.

“Everyone was just bawling for six hours,” he said. “Pros and people who had played with Brendan for a long time stopped by to pay tribute.

“It’s been pretty rough,” he said, noting he last saw Brendan the day before the accident. “I didn’t sleep for two days. He was just a super good guy.”

Funeral arrangements are being finalized, Bill Crockett said in an email. The brothers are also survived by two sisters, Hannah and Sophie.

Source :
2 Woodland Hills men killed in fatal Agoura Hills crash