Video shows Henry Ruggs III laughing while speeding year before deadly DUI crash

Disgraced NFL star Henry Ruggs III was filmed giggling while speeding through suburban Las Vegas a year before his deadly crash.

Disgraced NFL star Henry Ruggs III was filmed giggling while speeding through suburban Las Vegas streets a year before his deadly crash — with his girlfriend nervously begging him to “slow down.”

In the video, taken by Ruggs’ girlfriend, Kiara Kilgo-Washington, the booted Raiders wide receiver can be seen revving his engine as he zooms down a street.

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The eight-minute clip, reviewed by the Las Vegas Review-Journal before it was deleted on Friday morning, also features the caption, “SLOW DOWNNN” with smiley face emojis.

After already squealing and telling Ruggs to “just don’t do it no more,” Kilgo-Washington asks what the athlete plans to do next, the video shows.

“Launch,” Ruggs tells her, as the car revs in the background. “What rockets do? Take off.”

The clip was posted to Kilgo-Washington’s YouTube channel in September last year.

Disgraced wide receiver Henry Ruggs III. Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images

Ruggs appeared to be driving the same Chevrolet Corvette Stingray that he crashed on Tuesday morning — after authorities said he sped up to 251km/h before slamming into another driver, Tina Tintor, 23, killing her and her dog.

Ruggs’ blood alcohol content was twice the state’s legal limit of .08, prosecutors said.

After the crash, Ruggs was filmed being cradled by Washington on the ground next to his crashed Stingray — with Tintor’s Toyota RAV4 in flames nearby.

The video from September 2020 was titled “Wild Out Wednesdays” and showed Ruggs teasing his longtime girlfriend, who goes by Rudy Washington, because she looked “scared” as he raced through the streets.

She repeatedly asked him to “slow down!” and dropped her phone when the car rocketed forward, begging the athlete to “take me back to the house.”

“Don’t try stuff with me in here,” she told him, again telling him, “Take me back to the house.”

The destroyed driven by wide receiver Henry Ruggs III. Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images

In this week’s smash, Washington suffered a “significant” wrist injury while the NFL star also had leg injuries, the Review-Journal said.

Ruggs was still in a neck brace as he was pushed in a wheelchair to his first court appearance Wednesday on pending felony charges of driving under the influence of alcohol resulting in death and reckless driving. He wasn’t asked to enter a plea.

His defence attorney, David Chesnoff, told the court that the player was “a young man who has never been in trouble before. From what we understand, never a traffic violation.”

However, the local paper noted that the Nevada Highway Patrol issued Ruggs two traffic citations on April 29, for using a cellphone while driving and also for driving with an Alabama-issued license for more than a year.

He paid a AUD$573 fine, according to the records. He still had an Alabama driver’s license during Tuesday’s crash, the paper said, citing police reports.

This article originally appeared on the New York Post and was reproduced with permission

Originally published as Video shows Henry Ruggs III laughing while speeding year before deadly DUI crash